Black Lotus by K'wan

Detective James Wolf's nickname is Lone Wolf.  There's a reason for that.  He doesn't like having a partner, he follows his own path, bends the law once in a while and he's champion for justice.  None of that makes the Internal Affairs Bureau happy.  They're just waiting for him to go off on a lost cause; they have plans to nail him once and for all.  So why would his boss take him off Narcotics to work on Homicide?  He's not a homicide detective...

Akashic Books and Edelweiss gave me the opportunity to read this novella (thank you).  It will available May 27th, so make a note.

This case begins with the death of a priest.  It's an ugly death.  The only clues left behind are a boy's baseball cap and a black lotus flower.  Marx thinks it's the Brotherhood of Assassins; they'll kill anybody for enough money.  Wolf has quit paying attention already.  He realizes the people of the congregation include the family of a young boy that went missing and was never found again.  That's an old case of his and this gives him a new opportunity to talk to them.  He'd like to see that case closed.  He'll also ask them about the priest while he's there.

This is not the type of book I usually read but I really enjoyed this.  The Lotus Flower is young woman who was abused in life as a child.  Now she's a weapon who fights back for the defenseless.  She's mean, efficient, and lethal as hell.  She talks to my dark self.  I take glee in each pedophile she kills.

This is a relatively short story with lots of action and hard-core justice.  You can run, but you can't hide.  Just when you think you're safe, you're dead.

The Lone Wolf is still alive at the end, mostly because he has a sense of justice.  But so's the Black Lotus.  

Be careful what you do out there, folks.  You're being watched...