cover image SACRIFICE

SACRIFICE

Clyde Phillips, . . Morrow, $24.95 (320pp) ISBN 978-0-06-621237-1

Phillips's third crime novel (Fall from Grace; Blindsided) featuring diminutive but brassy San Francisco lady cop Jane Candiotti—newly promoted to homicide lieutenant and also newly married to her police sidekick, homicide inspector Kenny Marks—tears up the pages, sirens blaring and lights flashing, at car-chase speed. A billionaire Silicon Valley philanthropist famous for helping needy children is found murdered in a hotel parking garage just after donating $50 million to build a cancer wing on a children's hospital. Scarcely an hour later, a black skid-row bum is found stabbed to death. Jane, under pressure from the billionaire's snooty widow, struggles to give equal attention to both cases. She is further frustrated by the manipulations of an ambitious female underling who resents Jane assigning her to the case of the street bum. Soon, other murders connected to the skid-row stabbing—by an "S" scrawled in blood at the crime scenes—make it obvious that a serial killer is on the loose. As the "S" murders proliferate, anonymous letters arrive linking the two original cases. In an election year, political pressure from the top increases, and the media join the philanthropist's wife, taking up the cry to bring the serial killer to justice. There are few surprises here, but Phillips is a skilled craftsman and follows in the footsteps of Ed McBain with this solid police procedural series. (July)