My Detective

A serial killer stalks the homicide detective pursuing her in this convincing crime novel from Fleishman (Shadow Man). Since the killer’s first victim, L.A. architect Michael Gallagher, was politically connected, Sam Carver of the LAPD is under the gun to close the case quickly. Carver learns that Gallagher had his throat slit outside the apartment building of a hooker he’d been seeing, and that the dead man had freaked out after his computer was hacked a year earlier. Carver interviews Gallagher’s colleagues and ex-wife, unaware that his own computer has been accessed by the murderer, who becomes obsessed with him and considers him “her detective.” The killer, initially self-identified only as Dylan, who’s also an architect, uses Carver’s computer records to track his progress, even as she plans and executes her second murder, which only ratchets up the pressure on Carver. The motive for the killings won’t surprise many readers, but Fleishman’s ability to get into the minds of Dylan and Carver, who has some skeletons in his past, enhances this fresh take on a familiar genre trope. [em]Agent: Jill Marr, Sandra Dijkstra Literary. (Apr.) [/em]