The Chill of Night

Portland, Maine, Det. Sgt. Michael McCabe, introduced in The Cutting, has to deal with a frozen corpse, a missing witness, and a sadistic killer in Hayman's satisfying second novel of suspense. One winter day, a cop finds the naked body of Lainie Goff, a beautiful and ambitious young lawyer in Portland's largest law firm, stuffed into the trunk of her BMW convertible at the end of a fishing pier. Lainie's past, present, and what might have been her future all hold possible clues: she was an abused child; she worked with abused teen girls at Sanctuary House; and she had plans for making partner at Palmer Milliken. A possible witness is Abby Quinn, a schizophrenic teen who hears voices and has disappeared. The police need to find Abby before the cold weather or the killer gets her. McCabe, with an eidetic memory and a passion for avenging victims, is a formidable detective tested to the limit in Hayman's atmospheric puzzler. (July)