Veteran Philadelphia cop Kevin Byrne has been living on the edge for far too long. His marriage failing and his heart lost to mad fury, Byrne loves to take risks and break rules. Now he and his rookie partner, Jessica Balzano, have just caught the case of a lifetime:
Someone is killing devout young women, bolting their hands together in prayer, and committing an abomination upon their bodies.
Byrne and Balzano spearhead the hunt for the serial killer, who in turn leads them on a methodically planned journey.
Suspects appear before them like bad dreams, and vanish just as quickly. Meanwhile, the calender approaches Easter, the day of the resurrection. The last rosary will be counted, and a madman's cruel judgment will be meted out unless someone stops his wicked, pitiless crusade.
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It is Jessica Balzano's first day at the Philadelphia homicide unit with her new partner Kevin Byrne. With no time to acclimated they catch their first case together:
A young girl is found dead in the basement of an abandoned house. Her neck is broken, her hands wrapped with a rosary and bolted together like in prayer. With a second victim found not 24 hours later it becomes clear the killer favors young teenage girls attending Catholic schools and takes them in broad daylight.
Jessica and Kevin need all their instincts to follow the upcoming leads bringing them to a psychiatrist working for the Catholic schools. But something doesn't seem to fit when their only suspect is found hanged in his house. With his death the secret of the girls connection to each other and a lead to the killer seems to be lost forever.
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Speaking of building characters Montanari introduces two cops that couldn't be a better match to each other. With Jessica being the wife struggling with her separated cop husband and Kevin the commited veteran cop a lot of their background flows through the book building a relationship to the reader.
This novel is so full of turns that it is difficult to keep up and as soon as you think you might have figured out who the killer is you're slapped square in the face.
Gruesome, dark and amazingly thrilling.
Following this first novel are three books in a series around Balzano and Byrne: The Skin Gods, Merciless and Badlands.
Rating:
Visit Richard Montanari.
Mass Market Paperback: 432 pages
Publisher: Ballantine Books (February 28, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0345470966
ISBN-13: 978-0345470966
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