cover image The Game

The Game

Derek Armstrong, . . Knati, $24.95 (348pp) ISBN 978-1-60164-001-7

Armstrong's debut falls short of its promising premise: having a murderer stalk the cast and crew of a top-rated reality TV series, Haunted Survivor , which is set in a spooky mansion in the Vermont mountains. Alban Bane, the Scottish-born, Burlington, Vt.–based detective assigned to the case, is alarmed by the copycat style of murder, which mimics that of his longtime nemesis, serial killer Tyler Hayden. The perpetrator can't be Hayden himself, though; Bane recently witnessed—and was unnerved by—his execution at San Quentin in California. (Moments before the lethal injection, Hayden whispered that he knew the identity of the man responsible for making Bane a widower.) The detective's psyche is further rocked when he finds several people linked to the Haunted Survivor case who also figured in the Hayden investigation. Suspicion is briefly cast on the program's ambitious, sexy producer, Abbey Chase, for whom Bane unconvincingly falls. Few genre fans will be surprised by the mystery's gory resolution. Author tour. (Jan.)