cover image Last Seen

Last Seen

Kent Harrington. Polis, $26.99 (320p) ISBN 978-1-951709-23-5

In Harrington’s middling sequel to 2018’s Last Ferry Home, San Francisco homicide cop Michael O’Higgins and his partner, Marvin Lee, have no meaningful leads in the case of what the press has dubbed the Seven Hills Killer, who has abducted, raped, and murdered three teenage tourists. When a 17-year-old French girl is abducted, Seven Hills, who has been texting O’Higgins random questions, demands $12 million in ransom for her safe return from her eminent parents, a physicist and a historian, the change in m.o. offers some hope. Meanwhile, Lee is distracted by the revelation that his wife was once a prostitute, though he’s spared her other secret—that she’s also a hit woman , and her handler wants her to poison a man with polonium. Besides this distracting subplot, readers should be prepared for some awkward prose (“It was a look he would never forget: femininity laced with intelligence swamped by fear and horror, emotions/colors all intertwined and encased—and at the very bottom, hope”). Harrington brings nothing new to the serial killer hunt. (June)