Cut to the Bone
An Emily Thompson Mystery
Shane Gericke
Pinnacle (Mass Market Paperback)
ISBN-10: 0-7860-1814-3 (0786018143)
ISBN-13: 978-0-7860-1814-7 (9780786018147)
Publication Date: June 2007
List Price: $6.99
Synopsis (from
the publisher): No judge. No jury. No mercy.
The victims bear a madman's grisly marks. Each one is cut with chilling precision and then savagely mutilated ...
Martin Benedetti, detective commander for the Chicago
suburb of Naperville, Illinois, sheriff's office, is no stranger to
ruthless killers. Two years ago Marty and local police detective Emily
Thompson solved a particularly brutal case of serial murder. But this
time it's different. This time, the carnage that has been wrought is
only the horrific prelude to another more shocking act of evil—an
act that will strike at the heart of everything Marty cherishes most.
Review: Shane Gericke's second Emily Thompson mystery, Cut to the Bone, again features a serial killer who is targeting the western Chicago suburb of Naperville.
Emily and her professional and romantic partner Marty Benedetti are
having a spa day when the receptionist is quickly and efficiently
murdered, the killer escaping virtually unnoticed. After Emily enters
the details of the crime into a national database, including the fact
that the victim's nose was inexplicably broken and two barely burned
wooden matches were found at the crime scene, she is contacted by other
agencies around the country that have had similar crimes in their
jurisdictions. They surmise that a serial killer is at work around the
country, but don't know how the victims are connected. Meanwhile,
Illinois prepares to execute the killer of a pregnant woman and her
unborn child in a newly constructed facility built around the electric
chair used several decades earlier by the state. Emily concludes the
serial killer and the pending execution are somehow related and as a
result finds herself a target.
As with Gericke's previous mystery in this series, he is at his best in
profiling and documenting the actions of the serial killer. The
identity of the killer isn't revealed until the final pages and comes
as something of a surprise; Gericke convincingly proffers several red
herring candidates during the course of the book, any of which would
seem to have motive and opportunity. From this perspective, Cut to the Bone works well as a suspense thriller.
But there are numerous problems with the book that are hard to
overlook. Emily Thompson plays at best a minor role here. She's present
at the spa murder and is presumably the lead detective in the case but
spends most of her time wondering about her relationship with Marty
Benedetti. The spa murder is 8th or 9th on the serial killer's list, so
it is inexplicable that the connection with the broken noses and two
burnt matches wasn't discovered earlier. On the same subject, there is
never a credible explanation why the victim's noses were broken in the
first place, and the relationship between the matches and the electric
chair is truly far-fetched. The inclusion of a conversation between
Supreme Court Justices Potter Stewart and William Rehnquist that takes
place in 1972 where they discuss a pending case on the death penalty
before the court, and share a chuckle over executions in Texas, is
particularly odd. And probably most puzzling, in the end how did the
serial killer expect to achieve his stated objective?
There are too many problems with Cut to the Bone to recommend it, but those looking for a quick read with an intriguing serial killer will likely enjoy it.
Special thanks to Breakthrough Promotions for providing an ARC of Cut to the Bone for this review.
Review Copyright © 2007 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved.
Mysteries in this series ...
Blown Away
Pinnacle (Mass Market Paperback), May 2006
ISBN-10: 0-7860-1813-5 (0786018135)
ISBN-13: 978-0-7860-1813-0 (9780786018130)
Cut to the Bone
Pinnacle (Mass Market Paperback), June 2007
ISBN-10: 0-7860-1814-3 (0786018143)
ISBN-13: 978-0-7860-1814-7 (9780786018147)
Omnimystery keywords for Cut to the Bone ...
Location(s) referenced: Chicago.
