Mallory Petersen is a private investigator in Des Moines, Iowa, whose caseload usually runs to the routine, even the mildly offbeat. But when a young mom named Cheryl McGee comes to her with a heartbreaking story, Mallory is drawn into a nightmare of a case, in Stephen Brayton‘s mystery “Beta.” Cheryl’s 8-year-old daughter Cindy has disappeared, the apparent victim of a kidnapping. But there is no ransom demand, no word at all about what may…
