THE BLUE HOUR by T. Jefferson Parker
Hyperion, 1999/2000
The crime is ugly--retired police Lieutenant Tim Hess determines that someone is killing beautiful women and field dressing them in the Southern California mountains. Hess is called back to the force. This way, at least, he'll get medical benefits for his cancer.
Sergeant Marci Rayborn intends to rise to the top of the police department. Unfortunatly, she'd been stuck with a sexist partner who ultimately drove her to file sexual harassment charges. As a result, she'd been handed the murder cases and Hess as a partner and spy. She's got to succeed in this case or her dreams and her career go down the tubes.
Parker (see other BooksForABuck reviews of novels by this author) writes a pape-turning thriller. Hess and Rayborn learn to respect each other's talents and even share a love, ubt the killer's threat overshadows their relationship and their ambitions. The killer is getting bolder and decides to come after Rayborn as his next victim. The characters are believable and well motivated. Parker does a teriffic job getting into the head of both cops and the criminally insane
Four Stars
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