Borderline by Joseph Badal.
In “Borderline,” Joseph Badal delivers his first mystery novel with the same punch and non-stop action found in his acclaimed thrillers. Barbara Lassiter and Susan Martinez, two New Mexico homicide detectives, are assigned to investigate the murder of a wealthy Albuquerque socialite. They soon discover that the victim, a narcissistic borderline personality, played a lifetime game of destroying people’s lives. As a result, the list of suspects in her murder is extensive.
A good read with likeable characters. Little slow though. 3*.

I found this book difficult to read and get into the story. The characters were not that fleshed out so I stop reading after 15% and will not be reviewing on any of my platforms.

This book was a really good read. Very suspenseful and entertaining. This was my first time reading a book by this author but I'll be looking for others.

Murder investigation is not an easy job. When your victim is universally hated and had spent her life making everyone who knew her miserable, the job is even harder. Two female detectives in one book is unusual. When they are partners, it's even more unusual. This story has all of these plus many more unusual twists thrown in to make a very entertaining, enjoyable book. This is the first book in a series, yeah!!!

Two female detectives are sent out on a murder case that proves to be very challenging. The beautiful woman is dead but no one regrets it. Her husband is a bit mournful, but he's also relieved. She was loving and wonderful and then turned vicious and vindictive. She'd ruined many men in her life. She had lots and lots of enemies. But who killed her?

Book Buzz and Net Galley let me read this book for review (thank you). It has been published and you can grab a copy now.

Barbara and Susan keep asking questions and checking people out but the investigation is going too slow for the politicians. They press harder. And they find another dead body. The psychiatrist who worked with the victim didn't just talk to his patients. He had sex with them and recorded it. That set him up as being another murder with many suspects. That's when their supervisor pulls them off the case and puts another cop in charge. He also suspends them for two weeks. It doesn't stop their investigation...

There's another killing, Susan ends up in the hospital. People are lying to Barbara. It's a good thing these are strong women cops. They have their challenges but they overcome them.

This was a very good read.

3 stars

Detective Barbara Lassiter is slightly overweight and drinks too much. Her partner, Susan Martinez is a beautiful woman living with her abusive husband Manny. The reader has to wonder why she doesn’t get rid of him. Is this the author’s way of humanizing his characters?

Victoria “Vickie” Comstock is the victim. They are called to the scene and it is horrific. She was very wealthy – and very ill. She has Borderline Personality Disorder. This is a sometimes volatile personality disorder where the person can exhibit violent mood swings, sexual acting outparanoia and downright cruelty. Vickie loved to destroy other peoples’ lives. She was speared with an African spear and her face has been mutilated. Her husband Maxwell Comstock was out of town at the time. Or so he says. Will his alibi stand up? Her husband says she was a nightmare to live with, but he loved her anyway.

A young woman named Constance “Connie” Alban was also living in the house. She is missing. Marge Stanley, Connie’s mother tells Barbara about a private detective named Shawn Navarro that she had investigate Vickie. Barbara meets with Shawn and he gives her a copy of the report. She is astounded at what it contains. Showing it to her partner Susan the next day; Susan is also floored.

Susan and Barbara begin to interview Vickie’s former partners, husbands and friends. They are all consistent in their descriptions of their relationships with the woman.

When Dr. Stein, Vickie and Connie’s psychiatrist, is murdered, Susan and Barbara are at a loss. Tragedy befalls one of the women detectives.

The murderer of Vickie comes as a surprise – for me at least. The murderer of Stein – mmm, not so much.

This book is plotted well, and the writing is fairly good, but the story started out a little slow. First one woman flew off the handle at someone and then the other would. I wonder if the author noticed this. They seem like two volatile women who couldn’t act like real detectives. I didn’t particularly care for either woman or the men in the police department either. I want my police to pull together not bicker and backstab one another. The information about Borderline Personality Disorder seemed pretty on the mark. Mr. Badal must have done his research in that area.

I want to thank NetGalley and BookBuzzNet/Suspense Publishing for forwarding to me a copy of this book to read and review.