The Body Box

Abercrombie's disturbing police thriller, the first in a new series, introduces feisty African-American detective Mechelle Deakes. Demoted to the Atlanta Police Department's cold case unit after getting busted for buying crack, Deakes is drawn to a series of unsolved murders in the city and surrounding areas that date back to the '80s. Each case involves children whose bodies exhibited unusual bone decalcification, the result of malnutrition. The abductor kept his young victims in a cramped box, starving and then photographing them for a perverse Web site run by "Captain Hunger." After killing them, he planted evidence on their bodies that incriminated others. After a series of dead-end leads, Deakes and her shady partner, Lt. Hank Gooch, narrow the list of suspects to a fellow law-enforcement employee. But the wrong accusation could prove fatal. Breezy dialogue and Deakes's humanity nicely contrast with challenging procedural details and the killer's inhumanity. Abercrombie is the pseudonym of Edgar winner Walter Sorrels, who's also written under the pseudonym of Ruth Birmingham. (Dec.)