Book Review: Every Move She Makes

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Every Move She Makes     Amazon US PB Amazon Canada PB
Robin Burcell
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Police Procedural
Series: Kate Gillespie
HarperCollins, Dec 1999, $6.50, 388 pp.

San Francisco homicide detective Kate Gillespie’s plans for spending the weekend with her ex-spouse DA Investigator Reid Bettencourt abruptly end when the department pages her. Instead of being in Napa, she and her partner Sam Scoleri begin a gruesome murder investigation. Apparently the SoMa slasher has struck again. At the same time as the investigation starts, Sam has marital problems that started when his wife, Dr. Patricia Mead-Scoleri, a morgue pathologist, caught him with a clerk.

When Patricia does the autopsy, Sam calls in sick as if he needs to avoid his spouse. When Patricia is killed, Sam vanishes into the city’s underground. To her shock, Kate realizes the evidence points towards her partner killing his wife, but still she believes he is innocent. Her efforts to solve the mystery are impaired by Reid’s selfish antics, by the interference of an Internal Affairs officer, and finally by a mobster she plans to send away for a long time.

EVERY MOVE SHE MAKES is an interesting police procedural that takes readers inside the SFPD in a way rarely seen in a novel. Though the new author makes the classic error of debut writers by cramming way to many subplots into the story, the tale still contains a gritty, entertaining feel to it. Kate is a wonderful heroine and the support cast brings San Francisco to life. Robin Burcell demonstrates talent with her insider’s looks at a police department and investigation that will impel readers to want more Gillespie tales, only a bit tighter.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner