I have become a fan of Khan. Her books feature a different approach to policing, a Muslim woman detective in a very masculine culture, great plotting and good writing. ( )

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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WHAT'S BLOOD BETRAYAL ABOUT?
On one night, there were two police shootings in the Denver area. One is the shooting of a possible innocent bystander/possible fleeing suspect in a drug raid. The other is the shooting of a vandal by an officer who (claims? he) mistook a can of spray paint for a gun.

Both of the officers were white, and the men who died were young minorities. Both cases will call for the Community Response team to investigate, neither case will be easy for them (and not just because their limited resources will be stretched by simultaneous investigations of a charged nature).

So let's deal with these in the order we learn about them...

CASE 1
Harry Cooper isn't a fantastic cop—nor is he a bad one. He's a solid, middle-of-the-road officer, and has been one for years—and now is near retirement. He's never used his weapon before, but while pursuing some vandals on foot, he fires a warning shot in the air. Then he's sure he sees a weapon in the hand of the vandal facing him. So he shoots to kill.

It seems like a tragic mistake, but as he's part of Sheriff Grant's force, Lt. Seif seizes the opportunity to do a thorough investigation—to ensure that's all it was, and to maybe get more intel to help his case against Grant.

A number of things start to not add up—mostly around the "vandal." He's not one. He's an art student who isn't even from Blackwater Falls. He's taking part in a legitimate street art contest, for one, not someone tagging random private property. Secondly, Seif thinks the physical evidence may point to something bigger. But he's just not sure what. He wants Inaya Rahman to lead the charge on this.

CASE 2
But Inaya has other concerns. She left Chicago after being assaulted by a number of fellow officers, we learned last time. So when one of those officers shows up on her family's doorstep, she's disturbed (to understate it). John Broda has come to her for help—his son is a patrol officer in Denver assigned to help a drug raid on a marijuana dispensary that was known to sell harder drugs, too. In the midst of it, a potential suspect was shot. Officer Kelly Broday was arrested for murder, without saying he shot Mateo Ruiz, he is saying he's responsible for his death.

John Broda wants her to investigate and clear Kell, and in return, John will give Inaya the evidence he needs to close her last case from her days in Chicago.

She starts to look into things in exchange for the evidence, but she's soon convinced that Kell was set up—possibly by a gang within the Denver Police. But she can't figure out if someone wanted Ruiz dead (or why), or if it all has to do with the officer. Or is it both?

Meanwhile, the communities both young men belonged to start to organize and protest—particularly the Hispanic neighborhood Ruiz was from—and the Police Department isn't responding calmly. Time is of the essence for this investigation.

EVERYTHING ELSE
Which is just a pithy way of saying "Everyone's Personal Lives and the FBI's Investigation into the Blackwater Falls Sheriff." We learn more about every member of the Community Response team (and the civil rights attorney they ally with), and whatever arcs we saw or got hints of in the first book progress nicely (well, at least for the reader—I'm making no promises about how the characters feel).

Those aren't the important parts of these books, but the more we get invested in these characters, the more compelling we're going to find how the cases impact them and their lives. As a plus, they're all really interesting characters so the arcs make for good reading.

As far as the FBI Investigation goes? Well...it's still a thing. I'm not sure how much more I can say.

SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT BLOOD BETRAYLAL?
It'd be easy to write this series off as some sort of "woke" thing where a racially diverse group of police investigators find hate crimes everywhere. Especially when white cops kill black and Latino men. That would be a grave error, however. Khan writes complex stories that cannot be reduced to a simple, one-line explanation, never mind a label or two.

In Blackwater Falls we got one murder that led to the uncovering of a web of more crime and corruption. Here we have two murders that end up being about so much more—both cases are about as complex as the one from Blackwater Falls, but the way that Khan weaves the two stories together (if only because the investigators are the same) makes this an even more complex novel. We get two great crime stories for the price of one. Yes, I think one of the cases was easier for the reader to figure out—possibly too easy. But the way that the clues, motives, and solution were revealed more than made up for that. And the other case? You're never going to guess the solution until Khan shows it all.

But better than that is the way Khan shows (again) how crimes like this can impact entire communities, and the tensions that result and build up (possibly spill over) between those communities and the police rings so true that you could believe it happening today.

But Khan's not just good at the big, social commentary—the impact that these killings have on the families is obviously bigger than anyone wants to imagine. And, as she did in the previous novel, Khan shows the grief, confusion, anger, and the other emotions that strike a family at this time with sensitivity and keen observation. Over the last few years, I've started noticing this part of a police procedural, and I really appreciate it when the author does it well. Khan's one of the best around in this aspect.

Throw in some strong writing and great characters to all this? You've got yourself a winner. One of the best sequels that I read this year. You'd be doing yourself a favor if you grabbed the two books in this series up and doing so soon. ( )

A disturbing novel of betrayal, love and hate.

The Community Response Unit is called out to two police shootings of young men—one Latino, one Black.
Mateo Ruiz was gunned down by Kelly Broda, a police officer in Denver precinct. It turns out Mateo had been holding a spray can, not a gun.
Harry Cooper from Blackwater Falls had from all the evidence shot Duante Young. Young was a graffiti artist and he also had a spray can.
Detective Inaya Rahman is part of the Community Response Unit. Their job is to determine what has happened in police shootings of unarmed people.
The community have no doubt that the deaths will be white washed.
Lieutenant Waqas Seif heads the Response team. He’s also an FBI agent. Part of his job is to track down the white supremacist who have infiltrated the Blackwater Falls police.
Inaya Rahman is a Muslim woman who had been attacked by her fellow officers at Chicago Police for wearing an Hijab and being Muslim. John Broda was part of that attack. Now he wants her help to clear his son.
Broda offers Inaya a chance to clear the name of the last victim she’d been investigating in Chicago. Another young man shot by police.
Their investigations will lead them through a labyrinth of complications that reach back into the past.
The second book in a series but it can easily be read independently. I must say though this was such a compelling read I feel pulled to go back and read the first in the series.

A Minotaur Books ARC via NetGalley.
Many thanks to the author and publisher. ( )

Colorado, local-law-enforcement, procedural, multicultural, crime-fiction, thriller, suspense, conspiracy, lawyers, law-enforcement, due-diligence, refugees, immigrants, riveting*****

What happens when a good white cop makes a deadly mistake and shoots a young minority male. Not everything is a cover-up but sometimes things really get out of hand. Denver's PD is trying to make changes for good as evidenced by establishment of a Community Response Unit and the hiring of refugees of several countries experienced in law enforcement. Will it be a beneficial thing in this case. Detective Inaya Rahman and her Lieutenant are positive examples as are several members of their team. The story is intense and quite realistic. I was riveted.
I requested and received an EARC from St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books via NetGalley. Thank you! ( )

The Community Response Unit (CRU) is investigating two officer involved shootings. A young Latine man is killed during a Drug Task Force raid in Denver while a young Black graffiti artist is shot by a reliable, veteran officer in Blackwater Falls.

This is the second in the Blackwater Falls series. I liked the main characters and most of the supporting ones, a diverse group of individuals whose culture and background experiences interact with and enhance their professional responsibilities. This is a very good story, well paced, with important, timely social and political issues.

The story does seem to be a bit uneven as it covers various relationships and diverse concerns. I did not read the first book in the series and because there is so much emphasis on the interpersonal connections, I would have liked to have had more background on the characters. I also would have liked to have known more about the CRU and just how it fit (jurisdiction?) with both the Denver and Blackwater Falls police departments. Still, this is a worthwhile read.

Thanks to #netgalley and #stmartinspress @minotaurbooks for the ARC. ( )