The Jigsaw Man

Det. Insp. Anjelica Henley, the protagonist of British author Matheson’s so-so debut, still has the scars from where Peter Olivier, known as the Jigsaw Killer for dismembering his victims and leaving a crescent and double cross carved on their bodies, stabbed her at the time she arrested him. Now, two and a half years later, three apparently unconnected people turn up murdered in London, their limbs and heads severed, and Olivier’s signature markings cut into their flesh. Since Olivier was convicted, he has been serving multiple life sentences in a prison. After Henley’s assigned to the new cases, despite her prior traumatic experience, she interviews Olivier, which gives the murderer the chance to play mind games with her. Meanwhile, Henley’s marriage is imperiled by her devotion to her job and her husband’s suspicions that she’s being unfaithful with her boss. The familiar plot builds to a predictable conclusion. Fans of Thomas Harris’s Hannibal Lecter novels will have seen this all before. Agent: Oli Munson, A.M. Heath (U.K.). (Mar.)