Second in the award-winning Bo Bradley mystery series, STRAWGIRL throws child abuse investigator Bo into the curious world of cults, and pits her against the most loathsome of antagonists.
The rape/murder of a little girl is exploited by a sensation-seeking psychologist, arousing the public to a frenzy of mindless rage toward "Satanists" while Bo struggles to protect the murdered child's sister and save an unjustly accused man from prison.
Complicating everything is an attractive suitor, Cajun pediatrician Andrew LaMarche, whose proposal in a canoe results in watery disaster. Add new friends Rombo Perry, an ex-boxer, and partner Martin St.John, whose wheat rolls are to die for, plus an ACLU lawyer sleeping on her couch, and Bo sudenly has an entourage!
But both the system for which she works and the real killer are out to get Bo, in a complex case that threatens her with professional ruin… and death.
"A strikingly unconventional sleuth… (Padgett) knows how to tell a story with passion and purpose." New York Times Book Review
