Hornet's Nest (novel)

The first book in the crime thriller, "Andy Brazil" series, Hornet's Nest follows police chief Judy hammer, deputy chief Virginia West, and rookie report/volunteer cop Andy Brazil as they investigate a series of murders in Charlotte, North Carolina.^[1] Deputy Chief Virginia West likes and respects her boss, Hammer, but with an increasing number of visiting businessmen being murdered in her city by a maniac with a penchant for painting his victims bright orange, she finds it hard to accept Hammer's edict that a rookie reporter should ride on patrol with her to better relations with their citizens. Her worst fears are confirmed when the reporter, Brazil, presses the button to activate the boot-release rather than the siren on their first outing. He's not the only blight on her life right now: her cat's angsty, her hormones are misbehaving, her opposite number in the uniformed division is behaving like a jackass, the radio dispatcher is determined to trip her up, the D.A. is in the middle of a hot battle with the trial schedule. And orange colored corpses keep turning up on her patch. To walk the beat with Hammer, West, and Brazil is to learn the inner secrets of police work - the tension and the tedium, the hilarity and the heartbreak, the unexpected pump of adrenaline and the rush of courage that can lead to heroics ... or death.