‘Bone Canyon’ another first-rate police procedural

In the wake of wildfires ravaging Southern California, a screenwriter discovers a human skull fragment on the edge of his property.

Before long, a forensic anthropologist’s meticulous search of the area uncovers more bones. He identifies the victim as Sabrina Morton, a young woman who disappeared six years earlier after filing a rape complaint with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Enter Eve Ronin, a young officer resented by her colleagues because she made detective over more qualified male candidates. The promotion was a reward for her role in a case that produced good publicity for the department, but it unfairly branded her as a publicity hound.

The last thing she wants now is another attentiongrabbing murder case, but in Lee Goldberg’s “Bone Canyon,” the second book in his Eve Ronin series, that’s exactly what she’s got.

Eve soon learns her department botched, or perhaps deliberately mishandled the victim’s rape case. Worse, she begins to suspect the rapists may have been members of a secret society of law enforcement officers. As she struggles with “blue wall” efforts to derail her investigation, the remains of more victims turn up, turning the investigation into a serial killer case.

As with “Lost Hills,” the first in the series, the tale is fast-paced, and the author accurately depicts investigative practices, making a firstrate police procedural.