Blown Away

Financial editor Gericke's rookie cop v. serial killer procedural won't make anyone forget Silence of the Lambs, but his plucky heroine does evoke the spirit of Thomas Harris' Clarese Starling; too bad his brilliant, combat-hardened psycho killer isn't as vivid. Rookie cop Emily Thompson is about to turn 40 when she notices three dead bodies on her morning run: a goose and two ducks, decapitated. When the fowls' heads turn up in her mailbox later that day, it starts a three-day reign of terror by a serial killer with designs on Emily. Gericke gives supporting characters Captain Hercules Branch and Chief of Police Kendall Cross enough attention to bring their gruff veteran act to life, but overuses bland romantic interest Commander Marty Benedetti, who inexplicably melts Emily's hard heart without connecting with the reader. Perhaps that's a symptom of the novel's everyone's-a-suspect plotting-though flashbacks reveal the history between Emily and her stalker, an abused boy who grew up down the street from her, the identity of the killer is kept secret until the over-the-top endgame. Gericke's first act is fresh, and his prologue kicks the story off with a taut, grisly slice of terror; in these you can see the potential for a first-rate cops-and-psychos novelist.