The primary investigator is Illinois State Special Agent Elizabeth Hewitt (whose namesake is glamorous Elizabeth Taylor). Agent Hewitt spends more time thinking about her libido than any of her cases. We find her in bed with a younger agent in the opening pages and things do not progress much more from there. In the previous book of the series she had sex with the primary suspect and now bitterly resents her superiors for distrusting her objectivity! Yet the reader is treated to her lascivious musings on any male around her and his effect on her anatomy. Indeed, as the phrase goes; “way too much information…”

Young women are turning up dead in public places laid out as if they are “Sleeping Beauty” princesses. Simultaneously, elderly men are discovered dead in their own homes with classical music flooding the air. Hewitt makes links that are neither fully explained nor even believable and always she is thinking about sex. Any male in the vicinity is scrutinized and categorized as a potential sexual partner. Please - this is not junior high school.

The chapters are very choppy - 108 in only 316 pages and full of overused literary devices. The first time the reader is “teased” with non gender specific phrases with unclear person and place it is effective, but the next time it dissolves into gimmickry. With such short chapters there is little time to develop character or even a complex plot.

Then the author commits the most shocking crime in mystery writing — the culprit is someone who has never been considered and is unknown to the reader or the detective. This is wrong! But why should that be a surprise? Rusch’s principle character is shallow, sex-obsessed and constantly seeking a father figure or someone to assuage her desires. Her background is given in short bursts but arouses no sympathy with this reader. She seems to use it as an excuse for her behavior.

Lest I seem censorious- I am no Puritan- I enjoyed both NYPD Blue and Hill Street Blues which had their fair share of bedroom escapades but they also detected and did it well. The characters were well developed and even though they solved two crimes each week within less than an hour the viewer was far more satisfied than with this book. As Sarge remarked each week, “Let’s be careful out there.” And the best advice I can give is to skip this one.

--Jane Davis