Lee Martin: Death Warmed Over (USA 1991)

From the Publisher:
NEITHER RAIN, NOR SNOW, NOR SLEET, NOR HAIL...
A postman is murdered in his van. Nearby sits a charred 1957 Chevy. The first cop on the scene, Fort Worth detective Deb Ralston is also the first to find the abandoned house and the grisly bodies of a man and a young girl.

It appeared to be a kidnapping gone sour -- with $250,000 in ransom money missing. But why try to burn the car? What had the postman seen?

The suicide of the girls mother reopens the bitter wounds of a long-forgotten murder and points an accusing finger to people Deb Ralston has known all her life. Soon she's unraveling a twisted skein of love, hate and revenge that leads back to a Sunday churchyard... when all hell broke loose.

"Readers will find crisp prose and a warm, refreshing heroine. -- Publishers Weekly
Martin's "spirited, oft-put-upon detective is a revelation in the genre." -- Booklist
"Deb Ralston is a compassionate, no-nonsense cop." -- Chicago Sun-Times

Lee Martin: Death Warmed Over. A Deb Ralston Mystery. Worldwide, ISBN: 0373260652 (February, 1991), 219 p., $3.50.

Lee Martin: Death Warmed Over (USA 1988)

From the Publisher:
When Deb Ralston discovers the dead body of a faithful Fort Worth postman alongside a smoldering 1957 Chevrolet, the last thing she thinks about is the value of the car. A forty-two-year-old expectant mother and veteran police detective, Deb Ralston has learned to focus on the human side of her cases -- the clues of nuance and personality -- especially when it comes to murder. When Deb starts asking questions this time, she quickly discovers that quite a few Fort Worth residents own '57 Chevrolets -- and that you'd have to have a very good reason to burn one.

The clues point up a twisting rural road to a farmhouse where a little girl is found dead, still in her parochial school uniform. Deb is suddenly investigating a kidnap-murder in which the parents were foolish enough to send the ransom money through the mail. Spurred into action by the facts of the case, Deb is held back by Federal postal regulations and long-standing Fort Worth rivalries and dismayed by the realization that some of the chief suspects are people she's known all her life.

Death Warmed Over is Lee Martin's fourth mystery featuring Deb Ralston, whom The Washington Post hailed as "a distinctively different woman cop who is an interesting and appealing human being."

Lee Martin: Death Warmed Over. A Deb Ralston Mystery. St. Martin's Press, ISBN: 0312022212 (November, 1988), 212 p., $15.95 (?).