Over Tumbled Graves

The book opens as Detective Caroline Mabry confronts a man in a Spokane city park during a botched drug bust. The buyer pushes the dealer off the bridge where they're meeting and Caroline is forced to choose: attempt to save the dealer or go after the man who coolly pushed the teenaged dealer to his death. Soon after, the first body of a murdered hooker is found on the riverbank and the hunt for the man on the bridge kicks into high gear. This beautifully written novel turns the conventions of serial killer fiction on its head. Rather than creating typical cliffhanger suspense and gore (what the book jacket, with its breathless summary and blurb from James Patterson, seems to promise - yawn) it's really about our own fascination with crime, our hunger to enjoy the thrill of brushing close to some imaginary face of evil - and about the sad, sordid reality behind it. It features two wonderfully-drawn police protagonists and a pair of dueling profilers whose competition reveals just how absurd most of our assumptions about serial homicides are. The ending, if not a total surprise to the veteran mystery reader, is a terrific wrap-up for this premise. It's no surprise that the author, a journalist as well as a gifted novelist, covered a serial killing in Spokane and knows up close and personal that our fascination with the drama of these crimes overshadows the sad reality of the victims, women whose marginal status makes them invisible until enough of them die to become a hot story. I can't recommend this book strongly enough. As close to perfection as it gets.