Credo's Hope by Alison Naomi Holt

This is the first in a new police detective series, the detective being a tough, but realistic woman named Alex. Her partner is another tough chick, Casey. Her boss is also a strong woman, Kate, and throughout the novel, one strong, remarkable, or ballsy woman after another enters the picture. There's Gina, a Mafia boss who smokes cigars and has people kidnapped. There's Megan, a dog trainer that usually gets her way and flashes her boobs at drive thru employees. (It's hillarious. You have to read it to understand.)

Alex is talked into investigating a closed case by her friend Meg. There's a chance a man is wrongly imprisoned and about to die for a crime he did not commit. Unfortunately for Alex, however, the lead detective on the old case is now a very high up officer on the force... This does not bode well for her career and she steps on numerous toes just to get a few answers. Not to mention, someone has been following her and shooting at her since she started asking questions, she gets kidnapped, hit on the head, and ends up needing an air tight alibi for a sticky situation...

Meanwhile, another case is ongoing. Someone has been shooting prostitutes, a little girl is hospitalized, a rental home trashed... and chasing this culprit leads to two ER visits for Alex. Thankfully, Alex has two really cool friends in the ER, both nurses, one a bisexual man with a major dose of sex appeal.

And did I mention that one of these cases leads to Alex meeting a lady Mafia boss? GREAT STUFF.

There's no lack of excitement, but for me the best thing was the humor. I laughed numerous times at the character's mishaps or comments. Alex's thoughts were funny as well:

"...the aunt was showing a pretty vivid imagination concerning various parts of my anatomy. I was pretty sure I couldn't do most of the sex acts she suggested, but I tucked them away anyway so I could run them by Marcos (the sexy bisexual nurse) to see if he thought any of them were possible. Some actually sounded pretty interesting, but I think I'd had to do some stretching first."

I love Alex and the other strong woman characters. I think this is a great beginning to what looks like it will be a fun, exciting, and funny detective series. I have only one complaint: The story of how Alex finds her dog, Tessa.. good stuff, but the tale is related via her telling it in a diner. I think it should have been "experienced" by readers and would have been a good addition to the book, perhaps in the beginning, seeing as the incident occurrs just days before the prostitute gets shot and demands fifteen bucks from Alex for "copping a feel." (Again, you would have to read it. Very funny.)

I enjoyed this very much despite my one complaint and look forward to reading the rest of the series. 5 stars.

I downloaded the ebook from smashwords.