Nine Elms: A Kate Marshall Thriller

In 1995, Kate Marshall, the heroine of this heart-pounding series launch from Bryndza (the Erika Foster series), was a detective constable when she unmasked the Nine Elms Cannibal serial killer, who left the bodies of teenage girls—posed naked with bite marks on their bodies, their heads wrapped in plastic bags—around London. Though the killer was sent to a psychiatric facility, the scandal surrounding the cannibal case led to Kate’s being unjustly discredited and removed from the force. In 2010, after years of uncontrolled drinking, Kate is a criminology lecturer living on England’s south coast when a couple who believe their missing 16-year-old daughter was a victim of the original killer in 1990 beg her to find their daughter’s body. A forensic pathologist later consults her about the recent murder of a young woman, whom Kate concludes was the victim of a copycat of the Nine Elms killer. The tension rises as Kate begins a deadly cat-and-mouse game with the new killer, aided by her able assistant, and painful, long-buried memories resurface. Readers will look forward to seeing more of the complex Kate. Agent: Amy Tannenbaum, Jane Rotrosen Agency. (Dec.)