Mourning Gloria

Mourning Gloria opens with one of the most arresting scenes Susan Wittig Albert has written. China is driving home one night and passes a burning car on a back road. By the time she has called for help and looked closer, she has realized there is a young woman tied up in the trunk. The opening pages' procedural detail is unusually careful, and the case that follows expands into a meth-network investigation that the cozy form rarely commits to.

Albert handles the darker register with the same restraint that has made the China Bayles series last. The herbal lore (gloriosa as the title plant) is woven in with care. The community-college subplot involving China's younger student-friend is sharply observed.

Four stars. A late-series entry that proves the cozy form can be flexible enough to take on serious material. Read with at least a few earlier entries for full effect.