The Ties That Bind

The Ties That Bind is later in the Fiona Fitzgerald series, and the formula has settled into the comfortable register that long-running procedural fans expect. A Beltway-area family is the center of a multi-decade complication that turns into a homicide investigation. Fitzgerald has by now developed a stable personal life and a more antagonistic relationship with her department, both of which give the case some useful emotional texture.

Adler writes the Maryland suburbs with the same precision he brought to DC itself. The case opens out into a family-secrets investigation that runs back to the Vietnam era, with a payoff that earns its complications. Fitzgerald herself is starting to age in series-realistic ways.

Three stars. A confident late-series entry. Recommended to longtime series readers rather than newcomers.