Stress Fracture

Lyle's routine serial killer thriller introduces crime scene and evidence analyst Dub Walker, a character indistinguishable from the leads of many other such novels. The Huntsville, Ala., authorities ask Walker for help in the third of a series of murders, the brutal beating death of retired sheriff Mike Savage, who's found in his bedroom with a wrought-iron poker stuck in his abdomen. Walker's being an old friend of Savage makes the inquiry personal. There are no obvious connections between Savage and the earlier victims, a 73-year-old retired aerospace engineer and an activist in the local gay community. Providing Walker with a stereotypical motive for focusing on serial killers—a girlfriend during his med school days vanished without trace at the hands of one—does little to add depth. Macavity Award–winner Lyle is the author of Murder and Mayhem: A Doctor Answers Medical and Forensic Questions for Mystery Writers and other nonfiction works on crime. (Apr.)