Kill My Darling, by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles

I love Slider, but I haven't read one of these in years. This reminded me of why I like them: the in-jokes, the clever repartee, the slang...and Slider and his team being smart and politically adept within the department. In this book, we've got a missing (and eventually found murdered) woman with a horrific background who is surrounded by people who could have had reason to kill her. By the end, the murderer is found, but it's so sad and wasteful and horrible that it makes me glad I'm not a cop.