Veteran Inspector Paul Manziuk is called in to investigate and being a holiday weekend, he draws rookie detective Jacqui Ryan as his partner. Manziuk has a bit of an attitude about working with a newly-promoted black woman. Paired with the fact that his usual partner and best friend has just suffered a heart-attack, plus the unsolved case of the serial killer who has been preying on red-headed women, Manziuk is one grumpy cop, not in the mood to guide a rookie through her first homicide investigation.

As the pair works their way through the guest list, they become concerned that the murderer must be a guest because the house is securely gated. While the two detectives are trying to make sense of their interviews, the policeman they placed on guard is drugged and Crystal Winston, the housekeeper’s daughter, is found stabbed in the back woods.

Manziuk and Ryan assume that Crystal must have seen the murderer and begin to question the guests even more closely than before. This time, more of the secrets the guests have been keeping come out, and the detectives are more baffled than ever, until they notice something that may not only lead them to Jillian and Crystal’s murderer, but may prove the key to unlocking the serial murderer as well.

Shaded Light is a detective mystery written in the style of the traditional cozy. The suspects and victims are gathered together, each holding secrets close, one of them worth killing for. While there are so many characters it is hard to explore each in depth, they give plenty of reasons to hate Jillian and not to feel sorry when she is dead, as well as reasons to be sympathetic to the characters and their situations. Manziuk is a bit stereotyped as the gruff, seasoned cop in the beginning, but as he works the case with Ryan, he softens and begins to warm to her.

Even with the beginning a little slow moving, parts of the mystery bogged down with details, and an easy mystery to solve, the book will hold readers’ attention as they work their way through character’s connections to and possible motives for the murder. Shaded Light is an admirable first outing for a pair of detectives readers will look forward to hearing from again.

--Jennifer Monahan Winberry