In New York not long after 9/11, appealing psychologist-turned-criminal profiler Lee Campbell is traumatized by the unsolved disappearance of his sister in the mid-1990s. Though still recovering from a nervous breakdown, Lee is determined to keep working with the NYPD and find the man who leaves his female victims mutilated in churches throughout Manhattan, even if it means enduring painful reminders of his past. Lawrence (a pseudonym for Carole Buggé, author of the Claire Rawlings mysteries) assembles a quirky group of detectives and experts, all strong characters who can support future books in the series: Chuck Morton, the commander of the Bronx Major Case Unit, who married Lee's ex; Eddie Pepitone, a hustler who befriended Lee in the hospital; Dr. Katherine Azarian, a forensic pathologist and Lee's love interest; and brilliant criminal justice professor John Paul Nelson. Fans of Keith Ablow will enjoy this dark, intriguing thriller. (Dec.)

Silent Screams
C.E. Lawrence
Pinnacle Books, 2009, $6.99
There’s a dead woman in the very first sentence, naked and draped over a church altar with part of the Lord’s Prayer carved onto her body. Also on the scene: a sensitive criminal profiler, a cigar-chomping detective, and a querulous priest. Lawrence’s fresh take on the twisted-serial-killer genre is a high-octane, compulsively-readable thriller that gets New York right.