cover image The Killing Storm: A Sarah Armstrong Novel

The Killing Storm: A Sarah Armstrong Novel

Kathryn Casey, Minotaur, $25.99 (320p) ISBN 978-0-312-37952-0

Casey's turbulent third mystery featuring Texas Ranger Sarah Armstrong (after 2009's Blood Lines) draws the criminal profiler into a breathless drama as scary as a hurricane's eye. When Sarah's boyfriend, FBI special agent David Garrity, asks for her help in a missing child case, Sarah is eager to assist. Someone took four-year-old Joey Warner from a Houston playground while his young mother was arguing on a cellphone with Joey's dad. Aided by Sgt. George "Buckshot" Fields, Sarah also looks into the decapitation killings of prize-winning longhorn bulls, whose hides are scrawled with cryptic African drawings. As she seeks help from a former Tulane professor who's an expert on African symbols, Hurricane Juanita approaches the Gulf Coast. When clues surface that imply an eerie link between the two investigations, a terrifying cat-and-mouse game develops, pointing to more stormy weather ahead for Sarah in the best in the series to date. (Nov.)