Kerney is hoping for a light caseload for his last town, but a killing spree in campgrounds in New Mexico, ending with the murder of retired judge, Vernon Langsford, means that Kerney will have to do some fancy footwork to retire on schedule. While the first five murders were similar and included robbery, the judge’s murder stands out to Kerney because the judge was shot twice and the other victims only once. He thinks the first five victims may have been innocent by-standers, murdered to disguise the true target, the judge.

While Kerney has the other victims investigated, he concentrates on Langsford and his two children, Linda and Eric, as well as longtime employee and companion, Kay Murray. Kerney soon learns that the judge’s family is about as dysfunctional as they come. His oldest son Arthur was killed in an accident many years ago, something his wife never recovered from. His wife was killed with a letter bomb, assumed to be aimed at the judge in connection with an abortion clinic. Eric has been using drugs and has had a hard time holding a job, and Linda has estranged herself from the whole bunch - or so it would seem.

As Kerney begins digging in the Langsford family history, he begins uncovering lies, secrets and things that don’t add up. Each player will throw Kerney the occasional bone and then feel it is acceptable to withhold other secrets. Kerney realizes these people have many more secrets than they are willing to share and becomes determined to expose every last one to get to the murderer, even if it means destroying the rest of a mostly gone family.

The Judas Judge starts out at a very brisk pace with a lot of suspense and twists and turns. The clues to the past, however, are doled out one at a time, very slowly, and about two thirds of the way through, the book begins to drag. By this point, the murderer is obvious and the reasons for the murders have become easy to guess.

Kerney is an interesting character, but in this outing, he is a tired cop and shows it much of the time. Also, an incident early on in the book (unrelated to the murders) weighs heavily on his mind, as does his new marriage and how he and his wife will work out the distance between them. Another surprise from many years prior arises, giving Kerney more to ponder. Kerney is definitely a man in need of some rest and a long time off, making this perhaps not the best possible introduction to Kerney.

--Jennifer Monahan Winberry