Goodnight, Irene by Jan Burke introduces Irene Kelly, set in fictional Las Piernas, where Irene Kelly works and lives. The story starts with her discovering her good friend O'Connor has been murded by a bomb left at his own front door. And all because of an unsolved, three-decades-old murder the blustery, big-hearted newspaperman wouldn't let rest in peace. Once Irene Kelly gave up journalism for public relations. Now she decides to take over O'Connor's stories back at the newspaper that she left 3 years ago. But the search for O'Connor's killer may prove fatal for the intrepid reborn reporter. Because a savagely murdered "Jane Doe" corpse from thirty years ago is pointing the way into a lethal maze of blood and politics. And in the blink of any eye it could be "Goodnight, Irene"...forever.

A truely excellent series, I don't know why I waited so long to read it. Several more to read as well, hurray!

Sweet Dreams, Irene 2nd in the series - Jacob Henderson, the sixteen-year-old son of a candidate for District Attorney, comes to Irene seeking help. He claims his father's opponent plans to use an incriminating photograph to accuse Jacob of being a member of a Satanic cult. Whether or not the accusations are true, there are disturbing signs of cult activity in Las Piernas, most of which seem to have some connection to a local runway shelter. The stakes are raised on Halloween night, when the body of Althea Fremont, Frank's next-door neighbor and founder of the shelter, is discovered surrounded by ritual symbols—the same night one of the residents of the shelter goes missing. Irene is soon ensnared in a trap set by violent adversaries and will it be Sweet Dreams Irene?