Missing Sister

Jackson (With My Little Eye) sticks a difficult landing in this Georgia-set thriller about a grieving cop probing a series of bizarrely personal murders. Rookie detective Penny Albright is one of first officers on the scene of a fatal stabbing in an upscale suburban shopping village. When she sees the face of the deceased, she’s stunned to recognize him as Danny Bowery, one of the men she blames for the death, five years earlier, of her twin sister, Nix. Penny quickly catches up with a woman drenched in blood near the scene who calls herself Thalia Grey. Though Penny is all but certain Thalia killed Danny, her cryptic comments about the situation (“This is not a story about a rookie who stumbles onto a killer and solves the case.... This is not a story about cops at all”) convince Penny to let her escape. Xav Castillo, another one of the men involved in Nix’s death, has also been murdered recently, leading Penny on a winding investigation into who might be avenging Nix’s death, and why. Though the wild setup requires some suspension of disbelief, Jackson rewards readers willing to go along for the ride with a whip-smart, consistently surprising procedural. It’s a job well done. Agent: Caryn Karmatz Rudy, DeFiore & Co. (Mar.)