"Contents Under Pressure"

"Contents Under Pressure" is Edna Buchanan's first suspense novel in the Britt Montero series.  Buchanan is a journalist in Miami, Fl, described as "one of America's most exotic and dangerous cities."  Britt Montero, her heroine in this series is a crime reporter for a major Miami newspaper so I'm assuming Buchanan has drawn on her own experience in writing this novel.

The story begins as Britt becomes aware of an auto accident that has left a black man with fatal injuries.  However, he is not just any black man -- He's a former football star with a wife and three young children who works in the poverty-ridden area he grew up in to mentor young black boys to try to get them on a path to a better life.

As Britt uncovers more of the story, she finds it difficult to get details from the police and not all the facts seem to gel so she continues her investigation while also maintaining her daily coverage of major crimes.  She uses her sources within the police department although many of them are very reluctant to talk about this case except for one female policewoman friend who also works the night shift.  She is willing to share anonymous info with Brit about the police "screw ups" who tend to be moved to the midnight shift.  They're the ones that tend to be harder to control, full of rage -- in a word, dangerous.  It was a number of these cops who were chasing this black man on the night he died -- after a BOLO was issued describing his car.

The more she investigates the more hostile some of the cops become towards her and she receives death threats and her clandestine love relationship may not make it if she continues her digging.

I love Buchanan's style of writing and I look forward to reading the next book in this series.  She doesn't make Miami and its high crime statistics sound like a place I'd like to visit, though.  Maybe that's why her female editor is always trying to get her to dampen her stories and write more fluff pieces that won't scare the tourists away!  pazt