Blood in the Water

Blood in the Water - Jane Haddam

Blood in the Water  is the newest book by Jane Haddam in the Gregor Demarkian series.

Jane Haddam is the pen name of author Orania Papazoglou, who has also published books under her real name. Her most popular series is that featuring Gregor Demarkian, a former FBI agent now working as a police consultant and known to the Press as "the Armenian-American Hercule Poirot." He lives in an Armenian-American neighborhood in Philadelphia, where his quirky neighbors scold, meddle, and coddle him.

I enjoy the Gregor Demarkian books, but I find it necessary to read them in strict order, because I can never tell by the descriptions whether I've read the books or not. (There's always a murder, a group of unlikeable suspects that always includes at least one bitter and usually man-hating older woman, and Gregor's difficulties dealing with the cold, technology, or his inability to drive.) In general, I like the earlier novels in the series better than the later ones, but Blood in the Water  is much better than many of her more recent books.