Liz Paxton: Murder Inspector Extraordinaire

Hacked is the debut novel of Geri Hosier. I felt I was on a literary roller coaster for the first 20% of the book. The protagonist was a lady and all of a sudden turned into a potty mouth. She was a self-assured, strong woman, a cop, and became all batting lashes around the object of her affections. But then it seemed to take off and I couldn't put it down.
Liz Paxton is the head of London's largest murder squad, and her best friend is the publisher of a leading London paper. So there is plenty of glamour. What initially appears to be a revenge killing becomes ever more complicated. Enter one Afghan war hero, a Russian underworld boss, a very nasty bad man, and international intrigue ensues.
There was more brutal behavior than I tend to want spelled out, but that's just my preference. The story was a bit formulaic: beautiful cop; mysterious, handsome war hero; super bad, bad guy. It was a little too obvious that the war hero was more than he claimed to be.
This book is advertised as the beginning of the series. I thoroughly enjoyed the writing as the story progressed, and will definitely check out the next installment.