The Assailant
James Patrick Hunt
Minotaur, Jun 2009, $24.95
ISBN 9780312545789
St. Louis Police Homicide Lieutenant George Hastings leads the investigation into the strangulation murder of Reesa Woods, a high price call girl paying her way through college as an escort, whose body was found in the muddy banks of the Mississippi. The evidence is near zero and her associates refuse to speak. Soon afterward a second strangulation death, escort Adele Sayers, is found outside the city.
A regional task force is formed with George as number two as he and the team leader SLPD Chief of Detectives Ronnie Wulf bang heads. A third body with a different MO that of realtor Marla Hilsheimer is found clubbed to death. The killer gloats and taunts the cops with tips and clues to the St. Louis Herald reporter Cliff Llewellyn. Teaming up with Woods’ associate Rita Liu, George struggles to prevent any more deaths from “Springheel Jim” as the killer calls himself to the media.
The latest Hastings police procedural (see GOODBYE SISTER DISCO and BETRAYERS) is a well written serial killer thriller, but uses the taunting PR fame grabbing by the psychopath that is typical of the sub-genre. The story line is fast-paced as the homicides and the taunting increase. Fans will enjoy the taunting in your face of THE ASSAILANT as even the members of the task force know that without the killer’s help the case would remain hot.
Harriet Klausner
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