Sunday, May 23, 2010

Torn Apart-Shane Gericke

Torn Apart
Shane Gericke
Pinnacle, Jul 1 2010, $6.99
ISBN: 9780786020393

Four thugs working for child pornographer, white slaver and drug dealer Cash Maxximus kidnap a teen and have sex with her. They give her a designer drug named Katrina, which takes only one dose to make someone addicted. The foursome plays too rough and kills their victim. Without a thought they dispose of the corpse off a bridge in Wisconsin. When they stop to change a tire, local Sheriff Spencer Abbott checks them out; they kill him and dump his body into the river before leaving for Naperville, Illinois.

The Hawkman serial killer is sending body parts to Naperville Detective Emily Thompson Even though she is afraid she persuades her husband Marty to go hunting. . The leader of the crooks Karl Dittmer kidnaps the two children of Emily’s partner; she rescues one of the kids, but the killer gets away with the other. NPD is on full search and rescue while detective Robert Hawkins needs one million dollars to save the life of his little girl through experimental therapy. He finesses the Katrina from Dittmer and sells it back to Maxximus. Marty finds Abbott who gives him the names of the killers while Emily is trapped by the Hawkman leading to another NPD officer rescue attempt.

Putting aside Naperville being the murder capital, the third police procedural (see Cut to the Bone and Blown Away) is a complicated thriller with several subplots that Shane Gericke effortlessly blends into a strong story line. The villains are perverts who have no qualms about molesting little girls before giving them to a sexual slave trader to sell to other psycho sex predators. Emily is a dedicated cop who will work outside of legal limitations if the case like these required extraordinary rendition.

Harriet Klausner

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