Fractured

At the outset of Watterson’s engrossing fourth mystery featuring Milwaukee homicide detective Ellie MacIntosh (after 2013’s Buried), Ellie visits the scene of a brutal murder very similar to a case that she and her partner, Jason Santiago, are already investigating. Both victims have stab wounds to the chest in the shape of a cross, and their faces are slashed beyond recognition. The combined case proves difficult because the killings appear to be unconnected. The first victim was a seemingly happily married college professor; the second, an unidentified male living in an empty house in a rundown neighborhood. But the tox screens for the victims reveal that each ate some sort of apple cake before he died, as well as ingesting a large amount of Rohypnol, the date-rape drug. Complicating matters is Ellie’s confusing personal relationship with Bryce Grantham, a man she investigated in a previous serial murder case. The search for the killer builds to a surprising and satisfying conclusion. [em]Agent: Barbara Poelle, Irene Goodman Literary. (Mar.) [/em]