Cutting-James Hayman

Cutting
James Hayman
Minotaur, Jun 23 2009, $24.95
ISBN: 9780312531294

Following his wife leaving him and their child for an investment banker and the death of his brother also a cop, homicide detective Michael McCabe left NYPD and the city for a job with the Portland, Maine force so he can raise his thirteen year old daughter in a safe haven. However, he finds out quickly murder can occur in small cities when someone rapes and kills a high-school soccer star. Soon afterward, another young blonde beauty disappears while jogging.

Chief of the city’s Crimes Against People unit, Michael hides from the media the fact that the killer removed the heart of the first victim as if a surgeon performed the deed. He and Detective Maggie Savage focus on the medical field with an emphasis on heart transplant specialist Dr. Philip Spencer, whose alibi is a night at home with his wife Hattie. However, shockingly she states she was visiting her family in Blue Hill. While his former wife arrives demanding the return of her daughter whom she abandoned years ago, Michael knows the key is to saving the second victim before the killer removes an organ, but time is running out on McCabe and his team.

Although the theme of a serial killer has been used a zillion times recently along with a cop leaving the swamps of the big city for safer environs, fans will enjoy CUTTING. McCabe is a likable hero struggling with a horrific homicide and the potential of another as nasty as well as his piece of work former wife. Ironically, readers will solve the case before the hero does, but they won’t care as watching his frantic efforts to save a victim make for a fine Maine police procedural.

Harriet Klausner