Ladykiller

An improbable plot and overheated prose (""The killer strode through the New York night, its brisk, crystal air vibrating with electric bloodlust"") weigh down Light and Anthony's serial-killer cat-and-mouse tale, set in early 1990s New York City. After the murderer, dubbed the Ladykiller by the press, has claimed four victims (women of vastly different backgrounds shot through the right eye), the authorities create a special police task force. When the killer claims a fifth victim, Reuben Silver, a counselor at the West Side Crisis Center, Det. Dave Dillon investigates. At the crisis center, Dillon meets another counselor, Megan Morrison, who soon distracts him from his job even as the killings continue. The revelation of the killer's identity early on removes much of the suspense, while a last-minute twist is both unconvincing and difficult to reconcile with earlier parts of the book.