Flashpoint

Investigating the murder of a Cinncinnati college student, workaholic cop Sonora Blair uncovers the workings of a female serial killer and realizes that she has become the next target. $20,000 ad/promo.

In this stygian chiller, Shamus Award-winning Hightower (Satan's Lambs) introduces hardworking Cincinnati homicide cop Sonora Blair, a single mom of two who is stalked by a female serial killer obsessed with broken dolls and the act of cremating young male victims alive. When Sonora interrogates the dying Mark Daniels, a college student found handcuffed and set afire in his older brother Keaton's car, she is horrified to learn that the perpetrator was a young blonde. It quickly becomes evident that Mark's ritualistic murder was a manifestation of the killer's sexual fixation on Keaton. After the news media reveals Sonora as the officer in charge of the case, the killer?nicknamed "Flash"?phones the cop; soon a strange love/hate relationship develops between the two. Evidence of Flash's identity leads Sonora down a trail of similar crimes beginning in neighboring rural Kentucky, crossing into West Virginia, then southward to Atlanta. When the cop falls into bed with Keaton, Flash becomes insanely jealous and starts to menace Sonora's kids, then throws caution to the winds to wreak her revenge. Hightower's prose is functional only, but her pacing is brisk, her characters well drawn and credibly flawed and her plotting diabolically intriguing from start to finish. $20,000 ad/promo; Rights: William Morris Agency.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

When college student Mark Daniels returns home to Cincinnati, he makes the mistake of going out for a beer. He's later found naked, handcuffed to his steering wheel, and on fire. He dies but not before telling homicide cop Sonora Blair that his killer was a woman. When photos of the victim--watching the flames close in--are delivered to his surviving brother, Sonora realizes this is no ordinary criminal. Soon the killer makes contact with Sonora, who has been identified by the media as working on the case. It's apparent that the killer, Selma, both identifies with and also despises Sonora. Though the serial killer genre is overworked, Hightower--winner of the 1994 Shamus for Satan's Lambs puts a unique spin on it by inserting females into the two key roles. The conclusion is extraordinary; it's not a shoot-out, though bullets fly. Sonora and Selma reach a meeting of the minds that will leave readers pondering the thin line differentiating madness from sanity. Wes Lukowsky

Sonora Blair, a Cincinnati homicide detective and single mother of two, is summoned in the middle of the night to the scene of a particularly gruesome murder. There, a naked, hideously burned young man is handcuffed to the wheel of his car. A deathbed interrogation reveals the perpetrator to be a woman, and Sonora soon learns that the murderess has a history of torching her victims. After a series of suspenseful developments, it soon becomes painfully evident that the killer is watching Sonora's every move and that the detective and those she loves are potential targets. To anticipate the next maneuver and to catch this twisted sociopath takes all of Sonora's tough police experience and nerve. Hightower's first mystery novel, Satan's Lambs (LJ 5/1/93), was well received, and this follow-up is no less riveting. Recommended for fiction collections.?Sheila Riley, Smithsonian Inst. Libs., Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.