The Man Burned by Winter: A Rooker Lindström Thriller

After a serial killer claims three victims in Zacharias’s disappointing debut and series launch, Minnesota police detective Tess Harlow turns for help to journalist Rooker Lindström, son of notorious serial killer Gunner Lindström, who has recently returned to Gunner’s dilapidated cabin in the woods from California, where Rooker helped catch serial killer Tate Meachum. What Tess doesn’t know is that Rooker believes that aiding the police drew Meachum’s attention and caused Rooker’s young son’s murder, which has led him to come home to die the miserable, lonely death he feels he deserves. Roused to action by Tess, Rooker discovers that the killer is creating crime scenes that reproduce photos by Gunner—and realizes that he has become the target of someone who knows far too much about his past and is intent on intensifying his suffering. Meanwhile, Tess is increasingly anxious that Rooker could commit atrocities of his own. Indifferent prose matches an excess of queasy shocks. Zacharias tries too hard to do something fresh in this implausible serial killer yarn. Agent: Victoria Skurnick, Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary. (June)