A Bitter Pill to Swallow (English, Paperback, Gaston Keith)

Ravyn Knight's career as a successful porn star goes down in flames after she is diagnosed with HIV. To make ends meet she becomes an erotic dancer and uses her former fame to build a side business as a high-profiled prostitute. She is the first victim of a vicious killer who leaves her body with multiple stab wounds. John Friendly, recently promoted as a detective, is still learning the ropes when he and his veteran partner, Wade Russell, are assigned the case of investigating Knight's murder. Their uneasy partnership is strained even further by personal troubles in both their lives: Russell is drunk most of the time to help him forget about his son's recent suicide, and Friendly's rocky relationship with his girlfriend has him eyeing another woman. The detectives have conflicting theories, but the one thing they both agree on is that the killer is not yet done. When a second stripper is found dead, Friendly and Russell struggle to connect the pieces of the puzzle before a third body turns up. Can they put their personal differences aside before it's too late?