Thomas Dunne Books (Hardcover), ISBN 0-312-28398-9
The bodies of two pregnant women, their nearly full-term babies ripped from their wombs, surface in East St. Louis. To assist the local police in their investigation, the mayor of St. Louis offers the services of Detective Joe Keough. Paired with Marc Jeter, a talented but young detective from the East St. Louis police force, Keough makes little headway at first.

Along the way, Keough also becomes embroiled in a separate homicide investigation -- as the primary suspect. Brady, young boy in the foster care system from a previous case, wants to speak to Joe. Their talk reveals spousal abuse in the house of the Logans, the couple that wants to adopt the boy. Just hours after Keough speaks with the man, Michael Logan dies from a single shot to the head in a parking lot. So Keough must work at solving two cases, one which appears more and more like the work of a serial killer.

A third formerly pregnant corpse surfaces, and her profession and proximity to the killer yield good clues. Keough and Jeter pinpoint their suspect, but lack sufficient evidence to arrest him, let alone charge him. But the mayor of East St. Louis refuses to take no for an answer and orders the man brought in, angering Keough. Now justice may never be served…and the killer's next victim already has vanished.

Though a thoroughly enjoyable and quick read, author Robert J. Randisi skimps on the description quite a bit. After 370 pages, the reader still does not know what Detective Keough looks like. Also, Randisi reveals the killer's identity rather early on in the story. However, the unusual twist at the end of the book makes for a pleasant surprise.

Jen Foote

Jen Foote recently moved to central Florida, where she is a copy editor and page designer at a small daily newspaper. She is ecstatic to live an hour away from the ocean.

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