A serial killer is on the loose in Nashville and young Vanderbilt University coeds are in danger. Lt. Taylor Jackson and Dr. Samantha Owens, the medical examiner and Jackson's best friend, face a huge public relations nightmare as worried parents and the general public clamor for results. Worse, one victim is Jordan Blake, the daughter of a Texas oilman and a major university benefactor. As Jackson works with her team to hunt down the culprit, her boss asks her to partner with a troubled FBI profiler. Dr. John Baldwin—a genius at profiling when he's sober—has moved back to Tennessee from DC after an investigation went horribly awry. So now Taylor has to solve a crime and babysit a wounded colleague. VERDICT Followers of this series (Where All the Dead Lie) will relish the revelations of how Ellison's protagonists first connected. New readers of this page-turning, suspenseful thriller, will want to catch up on the author's other books.—Robin Nesbitt, Columbus Metropolitan Lib., OH

Well-developed, multidimensional characters and an exceptionally strong plot power bestseller Ellison's eighth Taylor Jackson novel, a prequel to 2007's All the Pretty Girls, the series opener. When Vanderbilt University students appear to be the target of a serial killer, Nashville cop Taylor teams with FBI profiler Dr. John Baldwin to discover the killer's identity. The killer's victims, beautiful college students, are posed in death with herbs sprinkled across their bodies. Meanwhile, Taylor is battling her own demons as she faces a grand jury investigation into a justifiable homicide in which she killed another officer in self-defense. And John, who struggles with depression, holds himself responsible for the deaths of three of his fellow agents. The suspense remains high throughout as the police work round the clock to find the killer before he claims another victim. The characters' humanity and the gut-wrenching problems they face in life-and-death situations put Ellison in the top rank of romantic suspense novelists. Agent: Scott Miller, Trident Media Group. (June)