In the 1990s, the Inland Empire Killer trapped and killed women in California. The murderer's final victim recognized him and survived, and his notoriety grew when it surfaced that he used his young daughter, Reni, as bait to capture his victims. Now, 30 years later, homicide detective Daniel Ellis is summoned to San Quentin, where Benjamin Wayne Fisher has a proposition. He'll take Daniel to the Mojave Desert and show him where the bodies are buried, but Fisher wants his daughter to accompany them. Reni was a well-known FBI profiler until she had a breakdown three years earlier, and walked away, moving to the desert. She still struggles with her role in those deaths, and she's reluctant to see the father she loved and thought was only playing games when they went out at night. The award-winning author of The Body Reader introduces two broken characters, both haunted by childhood trauma, keeping the focus on Daniel and Reni, rather than the victims or the serial killer. VERDICT For thriller fans who appreciate intricate and unconventional plots, with shocking twists.—Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN

After a nervous breakdown, profiler Reni Fisher, one of the two protagonists of this exquisitely crafted thriller from bestseller Frasier (The Body Readers), left the FBI. As a child, Reni was used by her infamous father, Benjamin Wayne Fisher (aka the Inland Empire Killer), to lure young women to their deaths. She vividly remembers the police leading him away after his arrest three decades earlier. Meanwhile, San Bernardino, Calif., homicide detective Daniel Ellis, has taken an interest in Benjamin's case since he became convinced as a boy that his missing mother is one of the Inland Empire Killer's victims. Now incarcerated on San Quentin's death row, Benjamin summons Franco, the detective who handled his case, with the promise he'll show Franco the locations of his victims' bodies; since Franco has retired, Daniel meets with Benjamin instead. Benjamin insists that Reni, who has never visited her father in prison, accompany them on the proposed outing. The secrets unroll as, under the watchful eye of armed guards, Benjamin leads Reni and Daniel on a macabre dance through the Mohave Desert and the first body they uncover has a piece of material draped over it that looks like the dress Daniel's mother wore the night she went missing. Frasier has outdone herself with this shocker. (July)