Several students escape injury, but the driver is shot, though not fatally, and a sixteen-year-old girl, Paulette Thomas, is killed. Maggie notices that Paulette was not just shot once, but many times, indicating to Maggie that Paulette was the intended target. Maggie quickly learns that Paulette's parents have recently separated, following an affair her mother was having with her boss. Brad Thomas, Paulette's father, is very angry with his wife and has a nasty temper, but Maggie doubts he would harm his only daughter.

During the autopsy, Maggie learns a secret. And someone may have been willing to kill to keep it from coming to light. Now Maggie and her partner John Phillips must sift through a young, disabled girl's life and try to uncover the secrets she was keeping and the person for whom she was keeping them.

Overkill is a very methodically laid out police investigation but it lacks an urgency to solve the crime. Several theories and suspects are offered, but none is given much credence. Maggie is an interesting character who always seems to be running away from her past - but the reader is given only hints of that past. She very tentatively approaches coroner Brian Mahoney and his romantic overtures. She is also not willing to deal with her mother and her increasing bad health. A more definite look into Maggie's past might help to better understand her actions and reactions.

Overkill is a well-paced novel that can easily be read in one sitting. Readers may be intrigued by Maggie and her past and be interested in learning more about her in future episodes.

--Jennifer Monahan Winberry