In this prequel to Rose’s Thorn, Detective Joe Erickson discovers a clever and vile serial killer preying on women in Chicago. Only a few cat hairs provide clues to the perpetrator of six mutilation murders. Joe’s razor-sharp intuition and unorthodox methods ultimately lead him on a trail fraught with twists, turns, and close calls. But pushing himself day and night begins taking its toll, and his obsession with apprehending the killer will be his undoing.
The last thing homicide detective Joe Erickson needs is to get involved in murder investigation. On a medical leave from Chicago PD after developing acute stress disorder, he has returned to his hometown in Iowa to settle his father’s estate. But when he learns two teenage girls in neighboring towns have been abducted, murdered, and found posed nude along a riverbank, he takes notice. And when his former lover and criminal profiler is brought in to consult, she talks him into joining the investigation.
Lynn-Steven Johanson 