The Ten-Mile Trials by Elizabeth Gunn is the 9th book in the “Jake Hines” mystery series. Publisher: Severn House, February 2010
When a dead man is discovered in a suburban house that is being used as a drugs lab, and Captain Jake Hines pulls in all his detectives to investigate. The victim carried no identification but the discovery of a small Mass card written in the Cyrillic alphabet hidden in his jacket gives Jake an important lead—could this be connected to a ruthless Eastern European gang that has started operating in Minnesota.
Meanwhile, a rash of burglaries are hitting the city and the way they are staged indicates that the perpetrators are new in town. Jake must work fast if he is going to track down the gang responsible, however, economic cutbacks are hitting the squad hard and the detectives have their work cut out for them.
This was a good mystery and I love the tone and the characterization of this story. I also liked seeing Jake handle the responsibilities of his job while dealing with the pressure of being a first-time father. My rating: 3 stars