The Dancing Girls

Oakhurst, Mass., police detective Jo Fournier, the heroine of Chouinard’s well-crafted debut and series launch, spends months fruitlessly pursuing the case of a middle-aged woman whose strangled body was found in a hotel room before she’s told to shelve it. Jo takes a few days off to visit her father in New Orleans, where she learns that another woman has been strangled in her hotel room; like the first victim, her body was arranged in an unusual position and her wedding ring removed. Jo believes that the two murders are the work of a serial killer. Chapters following Jo and her team’s methodical investigation into the world of cyber-gaming alternate with those told from the point of view of the killer. By focusing on the lives of the killer’s prey, Chouinard raises these innocent, unhappy women from merely being pieces in a puzzle and lends greater urgency to the pursuit of their murderer. The action builds to a sublimely satisfying final twist. Readers will eagerly await Jo’s next outing. Agent: Kathryn Taussig, Bookouture. (May)