cover image Flash Point: A Dr. Jenna Ramey Mystery

Flash Point: A Dr. Jenna Ramey Mystery

Colby Marshall. Severn, $29.99 (288p) ISBN 978-0-7278-8632-3

The massacre of 21 people by assailants with different bladed weapons at a Washington, D.C., bank propels Marshall’s absorbing third mystery featuring FBI profiler Jenna Ramey (after 2015’s Double Vision). The organized group of killers, who take no money, leave a note at the crime scene containing obscure literary references and a warning that they will strike again. One attacker tells the lone survivor to pass on a cryptic message: “treat all trivial things in life very seriously.” To prevent further deaths, Jenna’s team, the Behavioral Analysis Unit, must solve the puzzles posed by the killers, doing so while fighting a turf battle with Homeland Security. Jenna turns to a socially awkward former patient as a literary consultant. Meanwhile, Jenna believes that she and three-year-old daughter are under threat from Jenna’s psychopathic mother, who was recently released from prison. Adding spice is Jenna’s special gift, grapheme-color synesthesia, which allows her to use colors she associates with people and situations to help her determine the truth. [em]Agent: Rachel Eckstrom, Irene Goodman Literary Agency. (Oct.) [/em]