Kill Me Again

Empathy for female victims of child abuse and adult sexism informs this gripping, intense sixth novel by Bishop ( Chapel of the Ravens ), a 17-year veteran detective with the Los Angeles Police Department. At 43, homicide detective Fey Croaker has survived three dead-end marriages, a severely abusive upbringing and the relentless resentment of her male colleagues on the force. Now, because of a streak of unsolved murders, Fey feels extra pressure to solve the murder of a mysterious woman who had multiple IDs with different names, a million dollars in cash and only brand-new clothing and furniture in her equally brand-new condo at the time of her death. Fingerprints inexplicably reveal that the woman had already been murdered--18 years before in San Francisco. Despite this twist, the case appears to be open and shut--the woman's ex-husband, convicted of killing her the first time, was released on parole weeks before her second murder. But the victim turns out to be a killer herself, murdering the rich men she married under a variety of names. Throughout the story, what seems obvious is contradicted in labyrinthine ways, until Fey herself becomes one of the suspects in this complicated, compelling thriller. (May)