Deputy sheriff Steve Two Crow Martinez encounters a bizarre killer in his exciting third Porcupine County, Mich., adventure (after 2006's A Venture into Murder
). The discovery of a headless and handless embalmed corpse in an abandoned building leads to a demented geocaching game—using GPS receivers to find hidden trinkets or, in this case, bodies—conducted via an anonymous chat room. The gamers are led by a sociopath who resorts to murder when he can't buy cadavers to stock his caches. Martinez must solve this creepy puzzler while waging a heated campaign for sheriff, a position his elderly boss, Eli Garrow, is reluctant to relinquish. He also faces new responsibilities as he cares for his girlfriend's Objibwe Indian foster son, Tommy Standing Bear, while she's out of town. When Tommy gets lost in the woods, Steve must rely on old-fashioned methods to find him—and again to catch the killer. Kisor delivers an educational chiller that also serves as a cautionary reminder about overreliance on fallible technology. (Dec.)
