This is the kind of detail-packed thriller that Patricia Cornwell might have written early in her career. In Ashes to Ashes Hoag, a former romance writer, gives us an appealing heroine in the form of Kate Conlan, a victims'-rights advocate assigned to help hunt down a serial killer — and what a twisted mother of a killer he turns out to be. Although the plot isn't entirely original — The Silence of the Lambs comes to mind more than once while reading this gruesome tale — Hoag holds the reins so tightly that you'll turn the pages too fast to care. One caveat: It's not for the squeamish. B+
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