This is the third in Cohen’s series fea­tur­ing Detec­tive Jack Leight­ner, a sen­si­tive Jew­ish homi­cide cop work­ing for the NYPD. Leight­ner is try­ing to solve two cas­es in Brook­lyn; one involves the immi­grant Russ­ian com­mu­ni­ty in Brighton Beach, the oth­er is set in Crown Heights with its var­ied Jew­ish sects. The divorced detective’s per­son­al life comes into play as he fights his attrac­tion to the beau­ti­ful wife of a mur­der vic­tim. Leight­ner is also slow­ly dis­cov­er­ing facts about his father’s and uncle’s past lives dur­ing World War II and his own roots as a Russ­ian Jew. The author describes the Brighton Beach and Coney Island neigh­bor­hoods’ sights and smells in col­or­ful detail. As a Brook­lyn native, I enjoyed this fast-paced book and intend to read Cohen’s first nov­el in the series, Red Hook, which was a final­ist for the Edgar Award.