(2003)KIRKUS REVIEWHoag continues to exploit the theme of mutilated women (A Thin Dark Line, 1997, etc.) in a romance thriller about the hunt for a serial killer. Someone in Minneapolis is tying down women, then raping, torturing, and killing them. While they're still alive, the attacker sticks knives into the soles of their feet, then cuts off their nipples and aureoles. After they die, he stabs them in a ritual pattern, slices off their tattoos, and burns their bodies beyond recognition; to relive his moments of triumph, he audiotapes their screams for mercy and death. He's the ?Cremator?: just another ?sadistic sexual serial killer? with low self-esteem and an abused childhood behind him. His first two victims are prostitutes, but when he turns his hand to Jillian Bondurant, the daughter of a billionaire, Minnesota calls in FBI agent John Quinn, world-famous expert on serial killers and related ilk. In the Twin Cities, Quinn is reunited with his ex-lover Kate Conlan, a former FBI expert in violent crime and the only woman he could ever really love. After the death of her daughter and a bitter divorce, Kate has moved to Minnesota and become a victim- and witness- advocate. In that capacity, she's assigned to watch over Angie DiMarco, a runaway teenager who spied the Cremator while she was turning a trick in the park. As lots of tawdry details are dug up about Jillian (incest, etc.), the killer tortures and murders another woman, kills a small dog (in romance, always a sign of irredeemable evil), then begins to plot against Kate herself. Hoag's strong dose of S&M resolves in fire, blood, stabbings, and Kate spread-eagled on a table. Though Hoag grows more and more adept at juggling a complex plot, her sort of violent entertainment isn¥t for everyone.Pub Date: March 9th, 1999ISBN: 0-553-10633-3Page count: 496ppPublisher: BantamReview Posted Online: May 20th, 2010Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1st, 1999

Ashes to Ashes was my first Tami Hoag book, and I couldn't have enjoyed it more. If you are a fan of Jeffery Deaver, James Patterson, Patricia Cornwell, etc., you'll love this book. The plot was excellent, with enough twists and turns to keep me reading until 3am. The identity of the killer was a total surprise to this veteran thriller reader. Once you read it, you'll be hooked on the author's books. ( )

Being a cat owner and a cat lover, I was very disappointed in the fact that the author does not deal with the question of what happened to Thor during the fire. Kate doesn't even wonder about his fate when she is digging through the wreckage afterward. I kept waiting for the cat to come out of hiding in the garden in the end to add one last little note of happiness to Kate's life. The author lost an opportunity here and I dropped my rating two points because of the failure of closure towards an important sub-character in the book. ( )

Couldn't hold my attention but I'm trying another book by this author. ( )

Couldn't hold my attention but I'm trying another book by this author. ( )