Requiem

Taking time off as a cop is always problematic - even more so when you are the Deputy Chief of Police. Despite his best attempts to keep the real world at bay long enough to celebrate the budding life he is building with his significant other, Vasily Korsokovach is forced to cut his Las Vegas vacation short after a body is discovered in the choir loft at St. Elspeth's Cathedral. Dressed in clothes straight out of the late 1970s, the victim was clearly not an invited guest to the special requiem mass being held for a recently departed Sister; stranger still is the personal connection that surfaces, yoking Vasily to a past he long thought was behind him - a past that threatens to derail the near year of happiness he's enjoyed with the man he knows to be his soulmate, Alejandro Ortega-Cortez.

Separating the personal from the professional becomes further complicated when an unusual provision in the will from Alejandro's late father surfaces. While it's never easy navigating complicated family issues - something Vasily knows all too well from his own personal experience - Alejandro's appear particularly cruel, leading Vas to worry that unfinished business in his boyfriend's past might well keep the duo from getting to their happily ever after. Knowing how insanely lucky he is to have the diver-turned-career counselor in his life, Vas aches to take their relationship to the next level but the scales need to balanced - for both of them - before it can happen.

Torn between helping the man he loves and getting to the bottom of the case, Vasily chooses to do both as only he can. Chasing clues from Southern California to Tucson, Arizona, the detective soon discovers that the choice of victim was anything but random - and that death often comes at the hands of a patient murderer intent on timing their revenge for just the right moment.

For what is a requiem if not a remembrance of lives - and loves - that have passed...?