This is book 9 of the "Badge of Honor" series.

This note contains spoilers for the book.

Umpteenth Badge of Honor novel (the Philadelphia police series). Matt Payne is 27 or some such (he graduated from college somwhere around the time I did, in the 1970s, but the city was caught in a time warp a few books ago and moved forward into the era of 60" LCD screens in the city's police command center and streaming video.

This one takes forever to develop a plot, and none of the usual characters except Matt are important. It's co-authored with his son William E. Butterworth IV. Also, it spends a lot of time on anti-drug ravings.

The Texas Ranger character is somewhat interesting. And the bad guys, minor drug and prostitute trafficers, are better drawn than is frequently the case (stone-cold killers, certainly, but more fleshed out than is often the case).

I read this as an ebook from the library, and really, if you're going to spend the time on it, at least skipping spending the money seems a good choice.