Soul Seeker: A John Eisenmenger Forensic Mystery

The sadism of a serial killer overshadows pretty much everything else in McCarthy's stomach-churning eighth forensic procedural starring British pathologist John Eisenmenger (after 2010's Corpus Delicti). An unnamed serial killer uses methods reminiscent of torture porn movies on his victims: he films each of them as each is forced to watch another gruesome murder on screen shortly before he delivers the coup de grâce. At first, the killer beheads his prey with a guillotine, then moves on to slow-motion electrocution. Eisenmenger again teams with Acting Chief Insp. Beverley Wharton, who's struggling to survive professionally after having been raped half a year earlier, but neither lead makes much of an impression. That the killer turns out to have a scientific reason for recording his victims' final moments does little to redeem a mystery many readers will struggle to finish. (May)