Terribilis

In this formulaic serial killer yarn from Weekes (Walter’s Crossing), Ottawa–Carleton City detective-constables David Morrow and Brian Crowther investigate the murder of Lee Ann Boudreaux, a member of the University of Ottawa’s human resources department. Boudreaux was apparently killed by a needle injection, as were the killer’s next two victims. Meanwhile, Alison Mornay, an attractive divorcée, is being targeted by someone who breaks into her home and steals some of her undergarments. Of course, Morrow, a handsome single father, who lost his wife to leukemia seven years earlier, ends up meeting and falling for the damsel in distress. The cat-and-mouse game that the killer plays with the police is strictly by the book. Less so is the negligent professional behavior of Morrow and Crowther, who allow Mornay to be alone in an isolated cabin without any protection, even while her nemesis remains at large, a contrivance to set up the expected confrontation scene between victim and violent criminal. (Nov.)