Book ~ "Faces of the Gone" (2009) Brad Parks

From Goodreads ~ Four bodies, each with a single bullet wound in the back of the head, stacked like cord-wood in a weed-choked vacant lot: That's the front-page news facing Carter Ross, investigative reporter with the Newark Eagle-Examiner. Immediately dispatched to the scene, Carter learns that the four victims an exotic dancer, a drug dealer, a hustler, and a mama's boy came from different parts of the city and didn't seem to know one another.

The police, eager to calm jittery residents, leak a theory that the murders are revenge for a bar stickup, and Carter's paper, hungry for a scoop, hastily prints it. Carter doesn't come from the streets, but he understands a thing or two about Newark's neighborhoods. And he knows there are no quick answers when dealing with a crime like this.

Determined to uncover the true story, he enlists the aide of Tina Thompson, the paper's smoking-hot city editor, to run interference at the office; Tommy Hernandez, the paper's gay Cuban intern, to help him with legwork on the streets; and Tynesha Dales, a local stripper, to take him to Newark's underside. It turns out that the four victims have one connection after all, and this knowledge will put Carter on the path of one very ambitious killer.

We meet Carter Ross who is a reporter.  He ends up working on the story of the four murdered victims.  They don't seem to have any tie to each other until Carter starts to dig and manages to find one, which puts him and others in danger.

This is the first in the Carter Ross series.  I enjoyed the writing style.  It is funny and sarcastic, but not over the top.

There is a cross section of characters and I liked them.  The interactions between he and Tina and he and Tommy are funny.  Tina's clock is ticking and she thinks Carter would be a good candidate to be the father of her child.  Alas, they keep getting hammered and he ends up sleeping on her couch.  Carter comes from a rich background and dresses very cool ... if he were in the 90s.  Tommy is always bugging him about his pleated pants.

The ending came together well and I bought the "who dunnit".