Karen Kijewski: Alley Kat Blues

From the Publisher:
She's a hard-boiled Sacramento P.I. with a soft spot for the unlucky, the unloved, and one special cop named Hank.  Her name is Kat Colorado, and in her business curiosity can be more than an occupational hazard -- it can be murder.

Kat Colorado knows the dangers of letting a case get too big a piece of your soul.  But some cases don't give you a choice, like the death of twenty-two-year-old Courtney Dillard.  Kat found her battered body on a dark Sacramento freeway, an apparent hit-and-run victim.  Courtney's mother is convinced her death was no accident, and hires Kat to find the truth.  As sweet and good-hearted as she was, Courtney had no shortage of enemies, Kat learns. And they make no secret of their belief in blood vengeance.

Kat's also looking for the truth about her relationship with Hank, who's wrestling with his own soul-eating case.  A serial killer is stalking the Vegas Strip, and Hank's investigation is taking him over the line.  His obsession could cost him both Kat and his career -- while Kat's could cost her her life.

Karen Kijewski: Alley Kat Blues. Bantam Books, ISBN: 0553573152 (April, 1996), 384 p., $6.99