cover image Trail of Blood

Trail of Blood

Lisa Black, Morrow, $24.99 (400p) ISBN 978-0-06-198933-9

Two parallel serial murder cases 75 years apart drive former forensic scientist Black's compelling if formulaic third crime thriller starring Cleveland forensic scientist Theresa MacLean (after Evidence of Murder). When a mummified corpse turns up in an abandoned warehouse, the police believe the body to be a victim of the 1930s Torso Killer, the real-life perpetrator of Cleveland's first and still unsolved string of gruesome dismemberments. Then a copycat killer strikes. Black shifts between Theresa's Nancy Drewesque reason-defying chase of the present-day killer and the Depression-era pursuit of the original Torso Killer by James Miller, the honest Cleveland cop whose tragic death comes to obsess Theresa. On the personal front, the divorced, recently empty-nested Theresa, edgily nearing 40 a year after her fiancé's death, feels shaky about Chris Cavanaugh, a handsome hostage negotiator. Amid facile stereotypes and unconvincing plot twists, the fast-paced action hurtles to a breathless conclusion. (Sept.)