J.A. Konrath

2nd in series. Gruesome, but good. Goodreads review: Feisty female police officer Jack Daniels is back to solve her most compelling case yet! From major new mystery talent J. A. Konrath comes the latest intoxicating cocktail in the Jack Daniels series -- Bloody Mary.Start with a tough but vulnerable Chicago cop. Add a hyperactive cat, an ailing mother, a jealous boyfriend, a high-maintenance ex-husband, and a partner in the throes of a mid-life crisis.Stir in a psychopath littering the city with body parts. Mix with equal parts humor and suspense, and enjoy Bloody Mary -- the second novel in the funny, frightening world of Lieutenant Jacqueline "Jack" Daniels.Join Jack as she struggles to repair her train wreck of a personal life while tracking down and convicting one of the scariest serial killers in recent memory -- a killer for whom getting caught is only the beginning . . . (less)… (more)

Fun murder mystery.Email this reviewKIRKUS REVIEWA rapid-fire debut thriller that dares to ask who?ll come out on top: Jack Daniels or the Gingerbread Man?The stakes aren?t as obvious as they sound. The Gingerbread Man is a psychopathic serial killer who kidnaps, tortures, tortures, tortures, and kills selected young women from the Chicago streets, and Jack (n?e Jacqueline) Daniels is the Violent Crimes lieutenant who?s caught the case but can?t catch the perp. On the contrary: The killer announces his attachment to the lead officer by going after her, leaving doctored chocolates in her car, breaking into her apartment, and taunting her with the obligatory phone messages. While she?s trying to turn the tables on him, Jack is crossing swords with a pair of FBI clones, cracking jokes with her partner about how she can?t even hang on to her live-in boyfriend, applying to a dating service, and watching as the Gingerbread Man gives the nice accountant she?s been set up with the shock of his life before snatching his next victim and tying her up in his basement. Can Jack shake her bad luck and bring in her quarry before he kills her and blows up half the Windy City?Plotting, personalities, and gallows humor are all standard-issue. Konrath?s most distinctive contribution to the serial-killer genre, apart from seasoning it with a savvy heroine who just can?t keep a man, is some seriously gruesome sadism that should keep the kiddies away.… (more)