Bone Shadows (John Santana Novels)
Even if the victim  suffered from PTSD, St. Paul homicide detective John Santana doesn't  believe Scott Rafferty's drowning death was a suicide. It turns out that  several young men have died in the Mississippi over the past few  months, and something about the circumstances doesn't ring true.  Confronted by roadblocks, Santana goes a bit rogue, aligning with a PI  hired by another victim's family and with a reporter harboring a  conspiracy theory. When they realize all the victims belonged to  veterans' support groups and discover that the therapists were using  their patients as subjects for brain research, the whole conspiracy idea  doesn't sound so crazy. Without much warning, Santana's case mushrooms  into a full-fledged thriller (complete with a high body count)  guaranteed to hold readers' attention until the last page. -VERDICT This  is the fourth outing (after Bad Weeds Never Die) for the intriguing  police detective whose Colombian roots inform his perspective. Valen  could lighten up on the information dumps, but his highly moral Santana  character is golden. The bio-thriller element compares well with Howard  Shrier's Boston Cream and Merry Jones's Summer Session and, for military  conspiracy, Thomas Schreck's Getting Dunn. (c) Copyright 2012. Library  Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No  redistribution permitted.  (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a  wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution  permitted.