The Happy Pigs — Lucy Harkness

Written with passion and dynamic energy, The Happy Pigs by Lucy Harkness is at once a unique portrayal of police life from a truly fascinating perspective and an outstanding new novel about a smart young woman trying to keep her sanity and sense of humor in a world that's crumbling around her.

Six years into her stint with the London police force, Louisa Barratt is burned out. Because she is a woman in a largely male profession, Louisa has been relegated to the Child Protection Unit, where her primary task seems to be baby-sitting a fragile young abuse victim who clings to Louisa like a mother. Trouble is, she's suffering from a bad case of compassion fatigue, and with nothing to look forward to each day but her depressing caseload and nonexistent social life, just getting up in the morning is threatening to become more than she can manage.

She wants out, but the young rape victim she spends her days counseling has no one else to turn to. When Louisa herself is viciously attacked in the street by a would-be rapist, she fights hard, determined not to become another victim. Unfortunately, the consequences of these fleeting moments of life-and-death struggle are more grave than she can possibly imagine, and before she knows it her entire life is thrown into the depths of a turmoil the likes of which she has never seen.