As the story opens, the perpetrator of the crimes in Deeper than the Dead has not yet come to trial. However, former FBI profiler Vince Leone who solved the crime is still in town and now married to Ann Navarre, the elementary school teacher who played a significant role in the resolution of the case in the prior novel. The families who had been intimately touched by that novel’s evil are trying to restore their lives when the murdered body of a young woman is discovered by a friend.

The victim, Marissa Fordham, was 28 years old, and the single mother of four year old Haley. She had moved to Oak Knoll several years earlier and no one knew who the father of her child had been. Haley had called 911 saying her daddy was hurting her mommy. Without the identification technology available to dispatchers today, it was several days before the mutilated body was discovered. Haley is found unconscious clinging to her mother.

Vince is immediately called in to assist the sheriff’s office and child advocate Ann steps forward and volunteers to take Haley to try and assist her through the trauma of what she had witnessed until a next of kin is found.  Ann has a wealth of experience in this field having been a victim recently and much earlier in her life.  The mutilation identifies the crime as one emanating from rage, so the investigation is structured to target those individuals who knew the victim. The case becomes complex when it is discovered that Marissa Fordham does not exist and the search starts to establish her true identity.

Meanwhile the oddity of Marissa’s existence is revealed. She was an artist of sufficient talent but it is hard for law enforcement to understand the $5,000 monthly stipend that she had been receiving from Milo Bordain, wife of Bruce Bordain the very wealthy local parking lot magnate. Milo is a patroness of the arts and an organizer for charitable events, but this level of support seems suspicious.

In time, it is discovered that Marissa’s best friend Gina, although denying it, had known her before she moved to Oak Knoll; but this knowledge comes after it Gina goes missing. The search for her parallels the murder investigation. At the same time events are happening to the cast of characters met by readers in the prior book, which only tangentially affect the ultimate resolution of this case.

Having read Deeper than the Dead when it came out, it is difficult to assess whether or not a new reader to Tami Hoag will be frustrated by the many references both direct and indirect to the prior novel. For those reading in sequence it is certainly a match for the prior novel in complexity and adroitly handled tension. I would strongly urge that they be read in that order for maximum enjoyment.

--Thea Davis