Dead Connection (2007)

Don't let the dopey title turn you off of this otherwise satisfying mystery. A serial killer, whom Alafair Burke shrewdly keeps cloaked in the shadows until the near end, is picking off women he stalks on a popular Internet dating site. Young New York City detective Ellie Hatcher, herself haunted by a serial killer from her past, fits the physical description of her perp's growing list of victims. The supporting characters in Dead Connection, from Hatcher's genial mooch of a brother to a retired hack investigator, are all deftly drawn. Burke, the daughter of Cajun thriller maestro James Lee, is a terrific web spinner. She knows when and how to drop clues to keep readers at her mercy. A-