The Beautiful Dead

This is one exclusive that Eve Singer, an attractive iWitness News crime reporter, doesn’t want, in this taut thriller from British author Bauer (The Shut Eye). While covering the stabbing of a young woman just feet from throngs of London Christmas shoppers, Eve catches the eye of the murderer, who decides she would be the perfect amanuensis to aid his grandiose series of gruesome “exhibitions.” Bauer puts the sympathetic, conflicted Eve and the heart-tuggingly demented father for whom she is caring in escalating jeopardy, along with several memorable minor players, including Det. Sgt. Emily Aguda, whose small size leads people to underestimate her formidable skills (she’s a black belt in kickboxing and Judo). Though less of the killer, who’s pretty much a stock type, would have been more, readers will root for Bauer’s spunky heroine on this suspenseful slay ride through a snow-globe London. [em]Agent: Jane Gregory, Gregory & Company (U.K.). (Jan.) [/em]