Into the Black Nowhere: An Unsub Novel

This unnerving second installment to Gardiner’s Unsub series, read with steely determination by Huber, focuses on Caitlin Hendrix, a fledgling agent assigned to the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit hunting for a predator who has been killing young women in Texas. The person who fits her profile, Kyle Detrick, is charming and cunning, but when Caitlin attempts to get inside his head, he gets into hers. As the suspenseful plot proceeds from corpse to corpse and from Solace, Tex., to Portland, Ore., Huber delivers the third-person omniscient narrative with an increasingly hard-edged intensity, heightening the novel’s already considerable tension. Caitlin sounds young, impatient, and, at times, uncertain. Among her new associates, Special Agent in Charge C.J. Emmerich speaks with an air of crisp professionalism. Agent Brianne Rainey is, as the author describes, “chill,” with a pleasantly nonchalant style of speech. As for the honey-voiced, Ted Bundy–like serial killer, he maintains his confident, insinuating and intimidating attitude to nearly the end. Gardiner’s lean prose and Huber’s unsettling narration make this a worthy thrill ride. [em]A Dutton hardcover. (Feb.) [/em]