All the Pretty Girls
J.T. Ellison
Mira, Nov 2007, $6.99
ISBN 9780778324430
The serial killer kidnaps young women and takes them to the next state before killing them. After having his fun with his chosen pretty ones, he slices off their hand to take with him and leaves behind the previous victim’s hand with the fresh corpse. When a female is found by a Nashville highway with the trademark hand of the "Southern Strangler", homicide detective Taylor Jackson is assigned the case.
However, she and her team go nowhere as there are neither witnesses nor have any useful evidence beyond the hand. Taylor turns to her lover, FBI profiler John Baldwin but he fails to help her solve the case. When a local TV reporter dies in what seems an accident, Taylor is assigned that case, leaving John to deal with the Southern Strangler.
ALL THE PRETTY GIRLS is an interesting police procedural romance in which the serial killer steals the show from the two cops pursuing him. The story line is at its best when the Southern Strangler performs his deadly deeds and when the police investigate; when the subplot turns to romance, it seems forced as the heroine is obviously not ready for dangling alliances. Still sub-genre fans will enjoy this exciting cat and mouse game in which the culprit makes the rules that the vulnerable mouse must play by.
Harriet Klausner
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