She's been an oddity since she was a small child. After crouching behind the counter as her grandparents were murdered during a robbery, Keye Street was adopted by a southern family that would have been stereotypical except for their choice in children. Keye's biological family was Chinese; her adopted brother is a gay black man who staunchly refuses to make appearances in their Atlanta neighborhood.

Keye used to be a profiler for the FBI's elite Behavioral Analysis Unit, until her alcoholism got her fired. Now, a dry four years and one messy divorce later, Keye is running her own private investigation firm that rarely holds her interest aside from liking its location.  Keye's odd circle of friends tend to congregate in her recently-renovated office space: Homicide Lieutenant Aaron Rauser; the former hacker, Neil, who now works as a consultant when he isn't smoking pot; Diane, Keye's girlhood friend who works for one of the most powerful attorneys in the city; and Charlie, a grown man with child-like tendencies after a near-fatal collision that lost him what is rumored to be a powerful future.

Though Keye often begrudges it, Rauser often brings his work to her for advice.  With her history, she can't be publicly associated with his cases, but he respects her insight.  This changes when the Wishbone killer hits town and taking on Keye as a consultant is the lesser of the evils when the only other option is to call in the FBI. Two murders in Florida starting fifteen years before have been tied to a few of Rauser's recent murders, leading everyone to the conclusion that they have a serial killer out there who may or may not have been dormant for a while.  His pattern is escalating, and so far that's the only pattern he has.  Gender, race, and age seem to not play a part at all in the selection of victims, and Keye's job is to find what it is that makes the guy tick, so the Atlanta PD has something to go on.

Keye has a business to run and does her best to maintain her client base ... but then her day-to-day cases start jiving with the Wishbone case.  Suddenly, Keye is the focus of a serial killer, though she does not seem to be an intended murder victim, just the victim of some serious physical and psychological assaults.

When her buddy Charlie is arrested as a suspect, Keye begins to doubt herself completely.  How could she not have seen the darkness that lay under Charlie's happy-go-lucky facade?  And doubting the cops is just as bad, but she still has to wonder why some key elements of her profile don't line up at all.  If Charlie is guilty of something, she doesn't think it is this atrocious string of murders.  But convincing an entire department up in arms budgetarily and politically that their closed case needs to be reopened is something that a disgraced former FBI agent does not have the power to do ... even when one of their own has become a victim.

This book was fantastic: gripping, dark but with humor, and heartbreaking at times. Williams' style of writing is spare, which suits her protagonist perfectly. Keye is a quick-minded, terse kind of girl, full of quirks and fully aware of how everything about her doesn't exactly add up to a picture that's comfortable for the average American.  She has more depth and a more realistic outlook on the world than Kava's Maggie O'Dell, which is high praise coming from someone who has been a longtime fan of that series.  So, if you're looking to have your world turned upside-down by a series that will become addictive on page one, run right out and pick up The Stranger You Seek by Amanda Kyle Williams.

--Sarrah Knight