Nocturne for Madness

White’s third novel featuring Cleveland-based former homicide detective Thomas Haftmann (after 2013’s Saraband for a Runaway) is a clichéd cat-and-mouse hunt for a serial killer. Haftmann, “a self-styled existentialist” who’s now a PI, no longer finds being his own boss a novelty and resists continuing the psychiatric treatment that was a condition of his departure from the police force. Haftmann is afraid that his schizophrenia will claim his life before he can apprehend a sadistic murderer—dubbed the Jack-in-the-Box Killer by the press—who cut off the head of one victim and concealed it in a hatbox. Sections from the perspective of the killer add little except graphic depictions of the abuse he suffered as a child and the horrific harm that he inflicts on others as an adult. Predictably, the fiend can’t help taunting Haftmann by sending him clues, including a cellphone that displays an image of an erect penis. White doesn’t stint on explicit sex scenes or stomach-churning violence, which seem intended to shock rather than advance the plot or make the obviously high stakes higher. (Jan.)