The RIB: A Time for Murder (Time Loop Detective #1) by Paul Austin Ardoin
I heard the author, Paul Ardoin, on a podcast pitching this book as a police procedural + Groundhog Day, which is a fair summary. Our main character is Luke Guillory, a detective with the Sacramento police department.
He starts off the book as a bit of a loser. He's not a great detective, with a low case closure rate (despite Luke pointing out to everyone he had a great score on his exam). He's bullied by other detectives, mostly because his mother, the former top cop was on the take and is now in jail. And to top things off, Luke hasn't noticed that his marriage is sliding into oblivion. His wife has been away for a month, and now wants to divorce him.
Things change when Luke visits the retirement party for legendary detective Justine Blood. When he shakes her hand, a curse passes from Justine to Luke. Essentially, during certain cases, Luke will spend forty eight hours in a time loop, trapped forever until he solves the murder or kills the right suspect.
Luke's current case is the death of real estate magnate, Pye Domino, found dead in Lemon Park, an area full of drug dealers. During the first loop, he spends his time in denial that weird stuff is happening to him, but manages to contact Justine Blood for advice. Future loops unfold, with Luke trying different approaches, like getting to the body first (which ends with his arrest for the murder), trying to resolve his marriage issues (which doesn't go well), and being overly focused on a suspect.
The police procedural elements are 'soft'; maybe on the same level as a television show like CSI rather than Homicide: Life on the Street. But that's fine, as it's a familiar genre. And it's a solid mystery. Everything is consistent. It reminded me of a visual novel or game, where everything is there and the player, Luke, can roam through the universe, putting everything together. As Luke can't take notes with him through the notes, Justine reminds him of the importance of writing everything down and constructing a timeline for the case at the start and end of each loop. During the case, Luke's empathy and detective work improves, as he hones in on his suspect.
Some nice bits are some positive trans rep, and Justine Blood's stories of how she dealt with her time living under the curse. (In fact, some of her adventures sound more exciting than Luke's.) And the case is solid and comes to a nice conclusion. The subplot involving Luke's mother will no doubt be explored in future books in this series.
Recommended. It'll be interesting to see how Ardoin pushes the format in future books.