Night Medicine

It’s September in Milwaukee, 1948. A young woman is found dead at the Washington Park Zoo, her body gently placed in a bed of ferns, her arms folded, as if she had been laid out in a funeral parlor. Nearby, a lioness prowls her cage. Detective Lieutenant Joe Sonntag, the brains of the Milwaukee Police Department, tries to get the scoop on Why she was placed there in that fashion, and who or what killed her. A lucky break leads him to a summer camp outside of the city, where girls discover how to be independent women. And there the trail stops. Joe Sonntag senses that something deeply tragic and disturbing has led to the young woman's death. The more he probes into the summer camp and those who run it, the more he discovers undercurrents of belief and politics that somehow trapped the young woman and led to her death. He's never dealt with a mystery like this. He's not dealing with thugs or crooks or mobsters or punks; he's dealing with women who brim with high ideals and agendas, who have dreams of goodness that somehow lead to the girl's death. But he's at a loss to find the key. This is the third of the celebrated and well-reviewed Lieutenant Joe Sonntag mysteries. The series began as Five Star mysteries published by Gale, in Waterville, Maine.The Joe Sonntag mysteries are now being continued by Axel Brand as an electronic and print series.