The streets of Philadelphia are blistering in the summer heat, the homicide rate is soaring and the nights belong to the mad. Detectives Kevin Byrne and Jessica Balzano are prowling the streets with a growing sense of unease. Where next will evil rear its ugly head ?
When a series of seemingly unrelated crimes shatter the silence of the city, their worst fears are confirmed. A beautiful secretary is slashed to death in a grimy motel shower. A street hustler is brutally murdered with a chainsaw. Piece by piece, a strange and sickening puzzle presents itself: someone is meticulously recreating Hollywood's most horrifying murder scenes, capturing them on film and inserting the clips into videos - for an unsuspecting public to find. While Kevin begins furtive investigations of his own, Jessica goes undercover to work the back alleys of Philadelphia, entering a violent world of underground film, pornography and seedy nightclubs, hidden to all but initiated. Discovering that none of The Actor's victims are as innocent as they appear, the two detectives arrive at a terrifying reality: they are not just chasing a homicide suspect. They are stalking evil itself.
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Since the case of The Rosary Girls as been successfully closed, Detective Kevin Byrne has mostly recovered from the shot to his head and a six week induced coma. The decision to return to the force or not is his but when he gets news that Julian Matisse has been released from jail after having done only 2 years in jail the decision is made for him. His partner Jessica Balzano welcomes her partner and they are both assigned to a breathtaking, unbelievable case:
Someone stages killing scenes from classic movies, cuts the fictional scene from a VHS tape and puts the new and real scene in its place. The tape is then left at rental stores, waiting for an unsuspecting customer to pick it up.
While Kevin tries to figure out the reasons for Matisse's early release, Jessica's investigation into The Actor's case brigs her to the shady world of pornography, drugs and nightclubs. And more tapes are being found by customers.
Time is short, not only for Jessica to solve the case but also for Kevin who parallel searches for clues about Matisse and the kidnapping of his new love Victoria.
The Skin Gods is difficult to compare to the previous novel The Rosary Girls. There is again a subplot which is worked by Byrne and his amazingly gut instincts but it didn't get me as much as in The Rosary Girls. The investigation as a team between Jessica and Kevin comes way too short with Kevin moving around mostly by his own.
The scheme of newly discovered suspects being killed by the actual killer has been used again and I couldn't find much new ideas in this novel.
Rating:
Hardcover: 416 pages
Publisher: William Heinemann (2006)
ISBN-10: 0434013943
ISBN-13: 978-0434013944
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