Jack Mallory is a police detective in (as far as I could tell) an unnamed American city. In William Coleman’s Murder Revisited, first in the series, he is called off the investigation of a murdered young woman when the chief of police (whom he hates, and it’s mutual) orders him to investigate a cold case. 20 years ago, Timothy Waters was convicted of murdering his girlfriend, whose father is now governor of the state. Recently he was released from prison, because all the evidence against him disappeared. Jack is ordered, literally, to find evidence that will send Timothy back to prison, and to look no further. Jack has no intention of railroading anybody, and goes to work doing a real investigation.

Meanwhile, Jack is approached by the cop assigned to assist the detective investigating the first murder – that detective is notoriously lazy and sloppy at his work, and the cop is concerned another miscarriage of justice is coming. So Jack agrees to look into that one too.

Those are just two of the multitudinous plot threads that entwine to make up this unusually complicated story. There were too many coincidences in it for this reader’s taste. Also, author Coleman attempted to make his characters human and complex, but only succeeded (in my perception) in making them one-dimensional in complicated and sometimes contradictory ways.

The chapters were very short, the writing undistinguished. I didn’t care for this book. Maybe smarter people will find it easier to follow along.