2006-08-27 Gritty, fast-paced plot and a dynamite, take-charge detective make for an entertaining read!,

When bridesmaid Bunny Pederson vanishes after a friend's wedding, a search is mounted in the community of Moose Lake, Minnesota. Justice Trip, a traveling salesman & "concerned citizen," volunteers to be a member of the search party and finds the woman's finger...just the severed finger not the entire body. Yuck! He is rewarded for his efforts by mega-publicity and lauded as the community hero. Don't ask me why...he only found a finger.

Paris Murphy, a Twin Cities Police Department detective, sees news coverage of the event on TV and remembers Trip from high school. Back then he was a social misfit who had a crush on her. Paris' jock boyfriend & three of his buddies gave the loner, nicknamed "Sweet Justice," a bad beating for his misplaced affections. Ominously, the victim's motto was and is, "What goes around comes around!" All four boys died in a terrible car crash before graduation.

Paris gets the creeps after watching "Sweet" on the small screen and reminisces about her strange former classmate. He still looks weird to her after all these years so she goes out to Moose Lake to investigate. And man (!!) does she find trouble!

This is Detective Murphy's second appearance in a Theresa Monsour police procedural. My introduction to this intelligent, feisty, part Irish, part Lebanese law officer was in "Dark House," the third book in the series. Paris is a more complex character than most female protagonists in this genre. There is more to her than the same old "tough but vulnerable" facade.

Not only am I taken with this three-dimensional take charge lady, I also like her husband, (although the marriage is floundering), her family, colleagues, boss and problematic love life. The dialogue is realistic, the plot is gritty, fast paced, dark and very creepy. Ms. Monsour, an award-winning journalist for a St. Paul newspaper, gives us a vivid look inside the head of a totally wacko individual, a serial killer - and the view is chilling. The writing is quite good! What's not to like??
JANA