Price of Justice by Alan Brenham (a review)

This book begins in a really dark place with the lead character, Detective Jason Scarsdale alone, in his car, contemplating blowing his brains out.
It is only five weeks since his wife was killed in an automobile accident and he blames himself. All that really saves him is his five year old daughter Shannon. She needs her daddy to help her get through these troubling times and he needs her too.Some of the conversations they have, early on in the story really tug at the heartstrings.
The main bulk of the story revolves around Scarsdale and his partner Sean Harris trying to convict a pedophile and break the ring he is a part of. Someone in the police department seems to be leaking information to the suspect so he always seems one step ahead. Can they crack the case before Scarsdale is removed from duty?
Helping them is Dani Mueller, a police crime analyst but she has a secret that could threaten the case and lose Dani her job.
The characters of Jason and Dani are really well written. They both have a sadness in their life - Jason, the loss of his wife and Dani the brutal abuse and murder of her young daughter. They meet through work and although Shannon instantly falls for Dani (as only a young child can) it is to the authors credit that Jason and Dani are not thrown together as a romantic sidebar to the story. The attraction is there but both are wary, for their own reasons and attraction is really as far as it goes.
Towards the end of the story things really hot up with threats to all and a race to save lives and break the case.
The story ends in a much better place than where it started and, I must say, I cared about the characters enough for that to please me immensely.