Stacy Killian, former homicide detective for the Dallas Police Department, has burned out. Seeking to get as far away from her old life as possible, she enrolls in a graduate program in English Literature in New Orleans. She lives in an apartment off campus and numbers as her new friends, neighbors Cassie and Beth.

One night she is awakened by gunfire and after investigating she discovers both her new friends dead. It is apparent to her that Cassie had let the killer into their apartment, not suspecting the violence that would ensue.

Spencer Malone, New Orleans homicide detective who lives on the edge of disciplinary action, and his partner respond to the scene. They are quick to assume an old boyfriend is the killer.

Stacy, put off by their cavalier attitude, starts snooping around on her own and quickly discovers that Cassie had been really excited because she was going to meet the game master White Rabbit. This was a new Internet fantasy game, similar in concept to the old Dungeons and Dragons, but players have to be invited into the game as its reputation promises very dark and vicious challenges.

Scoping out Cassie's friends, Stacy discovers the inventor off the game is Leonardo Noble who lives in New Orleans. She finds him, interviews him while he believes she is a cop, and learns the rules. White Rabbit is a game patterned on the Lewis Carroll story of Alice in Wonderland, where the White Rabbit, who is the game master is not neutral as in most fantasy games, but pits himself against every player using deceit, wile and any other device. Leonard claims he is not a player as he has outgrown it, but nonetheless his games have made him a very wealthy man.

Spencer gradually gets around to Stacy’s theory of the game involvement in the twin murders and they keep running into each other. Grudgingly, Spencer starts according Stacy some respect and the attraction slowly grows.

Leonardo receives some postcards with Alice in Wonderland caricatures and realizes that he is being threatened in some weird way. He hires Stacy to investigate and the murders continue. The first murder mimics the subject of one of his postcards, and finally all are focused on the White Rabbit game.

This is a story that is totally plot driven. The parallels with Carroll’s story are finely drawn and are incredible creative. It is a rare story that does not have some plot duplication with other novel, but this is the closest one to be totally original this reviewer has read in a long time.

However, the characters are one dimensional and poorly fleshed out and their dialogue and actions are solely for the purpose of driving the story forward. So don’t read Killer Takes All expecting a great romantic suspense novel, but it is a wonderful detective story.

--Thea Davis