THE TROPHY EXCHANGE

A physically and emotionally scarred detective gets a chance to change her life.

Lucinda Pierce has recently returned to duty after being cleared in the accidental shooting of a child. Her face still bears the scars she suffered in the domestic violence case, which cost her an eye, but she’s refused plastic surgery to fix the damage. When Charley Spencer finds the body of her brutally murdered mother, Lucinda is drawn to her. But she suspects that Charley’s father, Dr. Evan Spencer, may be the murderer even though he was out of the country at the time. After a missing item of jewelry is found on another murder victim, Lucinda and her partner Ted conclude that they’re dealing with a serial killer. Each victim was strangled; each one’s face was brutally smashed after death; a piece of jewelry that belonged to a previous victim is found on each body. Dr. Spencer’s unusual reaction to his wife’s murder and the appearance of a strange woman at his house only spur Lucinda on to prove his guilt. When a victim manages to escape the killer and identifies her attacker as Spencer, the case takes a strange turn. After all, Spencer was in police custody at the time of the attack.

Fanning (Bite the Moon, 2007, etc.) has produced an exciting, emotionally intense story with a complex heroine whose future adventures will be widely anticipated.