In Susan Dunlap's Karma, published in 1981, Officer Jill Smith is a recently divorced member of the Berkeley, California, police force attending a ceremony conducted by the new guru in town, when he is stabbed to death in full view of the audience. Since the area is part of her beat, Smith goes to work on the case immediately, trying to sort out the motives of the various characters around the dead monk. As the case progresses, she begins to wonder if anyone is really what they seem to be. Having lived in the Bay Area in the 1980's myself, I enjoyed the portrait of that diverse area. Grade: B.
Officer Jill Smith's ex-husband Nat calls and asks As A Favor that Jill check on one of his co-workers, Anne Spaulding, who has not come to work at the Berkeley Welfare Office. When Jill goes to Anne's apartment, she finds signs of a struggle, overturned furniture, blood on the walls and floor, and the missing woman's purse and drivers license. Blood stained clothing has been turned in at the police station, suggesting that a body has been dumped into San Francisco Bay. As Jill investigates, however, an unflattering portrait of Anne Spaulding begins to emerge, as does a very fresh corpse, and Jill begins to wonder exactly how Nat may be involved. These books tend to be police procedurals, although I have a lot of trouble believing that proper procedure was followed toward the end of the book when Jill goes to arrest the suspect without waiting for backup. Still, I'd give it a solid Grade: B.
In Not Exactly a Brahmin, newly minted Homicide Division detective Jill Smith is driving down the street when she comes on the site of a recent automobile accident that turns out not to be so accidental--the car's brake lines have been tampered with, making this a murder scene. The victim, a wealthy Berkeley philanthropist, was involved in many charitable organizations and seemed to have no enemies. The only clues are a piece of paper found in the car that says "Shareholders Five", and the suspicious behavior of the widow. Grade: B.
Homicide detective Jill Smith helps paralyzed disability activist Liz Goldenstern get home in her wheelchair; hours later Liz is found drowned in a puddle of water miles away in Rainbow Village, a homeless encampment near the site of an apartment building Liz is involved in building in Too Close To The Edge. A cut seatbelt on Liz's wheelchair shows this was no accident, but murder. Once again Smith has to sort out the motives and emotions of a wide variety of characters. Grade: B.
Jill Smith finds that the Berkeley "Gourmet Ghetto" can be a dangerous place when a celebrity restaurateur is poisoned in his own restaurant in A Dinner To Die For. Was it a potential business competitor, an employee, or a well known local street person known as Earth Man? As usual, Jill has a variety of motives and relationships to sort through. Grade: B.
When Jill Smith is called to the scene of an alleged felonious assault in Diamond In The Buff, she finds that the victim is dentist Hasbrouck Diamond, known to the Berkeley PD as "Has-bitched" for his frequent complaints. The alleged assailant is a ten-foot long Eucalyptus branch from a tree belonging to his next door neighbor, who he alleges has weakened the branch so that it would fall on him while he was indulging in nude sunbathing on his deck. When the neighbor disappears and a corpse appears, the situation ceases to be comical. Grade: B.
When an aggressive IRS agent is murdered in Death And Taxes, few Berkeley residents struggling to finish their Form 1040s in time are able to express much sorrow at his demise, and the scene is crowded with potential suspects, including participants in a macabre game called the Death Game. Grade: B.
As a trained hostage negotiator, Detective Jill Smith is called to the scene in Time Expired where witnesses have reported a woman being dragged into a canyon. At the scene, the team finds evidence that the perpetrator may have been involved in an escalating series of pranks directed at the Berkeley Police Department's parking enforcement agents. Interviewing potential witnesses leads her to dying attorney Madeline Riordan, who has a long history of challenging the police, and who clearly has something on her mind, but before she can tell Jill, she is murdered. Grade: B.
These are all the Susan Dunlap books I have; I'm not sure I will ever read these again, but I found them entertaining enough to give them a grade of B.