Book ~ "Never Alone" (2014) C.J. Carpenter

From Goodreads ~ If it weren't for booze and one-night stands, NYPD detective Megan McGinn probably couldn't deal with the losses in her life. She's just buried her dad, a retired cop, and has to move her mother, ravaged by late-stage Alzheimer's, into a nursing home. Solving a recent high-profile homicide has made Megan a reluctant celebrity but the guilt of spending time away from her struggling family is too much to bear. 

 Overwhelmed by the pressure, Megan is ready to walk away from the police force but a brutal murder brings her back. The victim, an attractive young woman, was strangled, groomed, posed ... and worse. With heat coming from the press, city hall and her boss, the danger escalates as Megan is forced to turn to a sadistic perp from a previous case for help.

Megan, like her dad, is a cop.  Her father has just died and she and her brother have had to put her mother in a nursing home because she has Alzheimer's.  Megan was going to take some time off but her partner, Nappa, convinces her to work on a case with him.  A young woman has been killed and her body was left in a bizarre manner.

As Megan and Nappa investigate, the killer gets a little too close to Megan which makes her even more determined to find the killer.

This is the first book I've read by this author and I enjoyed it.  I liked the writing style and found that that it moved at a good pace.  It is written in third person perspective with most of the focus on Megan.  I thought the ending came together really quickly, though, and I kind of when "huh?" ... I wasn't really buying it the "whodunnit".  As a head's up, there is a lot of swearing and there is some adult activity which would probably not be appropriate for a younger reader.

I liked Megan.  She likes to drink and swear and tells you what she's thinking .. there's no BSing with her.  She has a lot going on with her beloved father's recent death, her mother's illness and her stressful job.  I liked her humour and sarcasm.  Nappa sounds like a great guy and a good friend to Megan, which she really needs.  It would be interesting to see if they get together sometime in the future.

I'm assuming this is the first in a series (I hope so) and I look forward to reading future books by this author.