Detective Fiction, Thrillers, Women Detectives - Fiction, Occupations - Fiction, Police Stories
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Overview
Doctor Samantha Turner serves as the medical examiner for the city of Sheridan, Wyoming, and it seems that she's getting a bit too much work lately. After all, the M.E.'s job isn't full time and Sam does have other things to do. Unfortunately, one of them is dealing with Derek Turner, her late husband's son, a man who claims to be a foreign correspondent and who makes it clear that Sam is "my father's second wife, not my stepmother." Someone in Washington wants information about Sam's latest corpse, a woman who had been part of the Witness Protection Program, and they figure Derek can get what's needed from Sam without any trouble. Which just goes to show you that it doesn't pay to underestimate her. After all, even though the police refuse to see a pattern in the murders that are occurring on the holidays, Sam knows better. She even knows which one is a copycat killing. The only one who will listen is Derek, and he has his own agenda. That leaves the doctor with one move - and if things don't play out just right, that move is a sacrifice.Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
Landreth's interesting characters and plot are the real victims in this first effort, done in by its hokey, melodramatic conclusion. Dr. Samantha Turner, 34-year-old widow and coroner of Sheridan, Wyo., is sure that a serial killer is responsible for the nearby murders of women at holiday times. The most recent killing--on July 4--attracts the attention of the Defense Intelligence Agency, because the victim was in the federal Witness Protection program. When putative journalist (and CIA agent) Derek Turner, son of Samantha's late husband, arrives in Sheridan to investigate, Sam is stunned by how much he resembles his father. Readers are alerted to the possibility of romance. Another body, which Sam realizes has been frozen, turns up as the plot thickens somewhat. A friend of Sam's is killed and then she herself is targeted by a killer. The plot's forensics aspects seem realistic, but its climax--involving the surprise appearances of an unknown twin and a live ``corpse,'' a histrionic confrontation and the end of an affair (all occurring in a church)--rings like a wooden nickel. But the novel accomplishes enough prior to its final pages to make Samantha Turner's promised second appearance worth watching for. (Dec.)Kirkus Reviews
When Sheridan, Wyoming, is rocked by a series of rape-murders linked to holidays from Valentine's Day to New Year's, hyperactive medical-examiner Dr. Samantha Turner painstakingly fits together the forensic evidence that enables her dimwitted police colleagues to make an arrest after Sam bushwacks the murderer herself. But then Sam insists that the evidence against the suspect, who confesses to six killings, actually clears him of one. Getting no sympathy from anxious city fathers—several of whom seem to have been involved with the telltale victim—she tips her hand to the second killer, not realizing that her only remaining ally, her late husband's son Derek, has his own secret interest in the case—and, unfortunately, in her. A determined and surprisingly successful attempt to compete with Patricia Cornwell. Sam Turner's first case leaves you hungry for more.Book Details
Published
December 1, 1992
Publisher
Walker & Co
Pages
243
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780802712462