Redzone

May 11, 2015
The intrigue intensifies for Cassandra Lee, a detective in the LAPD’s Special Investigative Section, in this sharp sequel to Deadeye. In the 2060s, America is recovering from a mutation-inducing plague. Cass is still hunting the Bonebreaker, a serial killer who murdered her father, and now that she’s heading the investigation, she’s a potential victim herself. Responding to a letter from her mother, who abandoned her at age two, Cass is drawn into the mutant-infested “red zone” of L.A., where she learns about drama involving the stepfamily she’s never known. When a copycat killer begins mimicking the Bonebreaker’s ghoulish style, Cass gets help hunting him down from the most unlikely assistant. Science fiction flourishes notwithstanding, the novel tracks as a straight crime thriller. Its brisk pacing and suspenseful twists will suck in readers, who will eagerly await the revelation of the Bonebreaker’s identity in a future book. Agent: JABberwocky Agency.

July 1, 2015
A catastrophic bioterrorist attack has devastated the population with a dangerous mutagen, radically altering the planet, and the new world order has given rise to new ideologies. Cassandra Lee is an unmutated norm working as a cop in the nation of Pacifica, and she's on the case of a brutal serial killer known as the Bonebreaker. But the Bonebreaker's murders aren't just the pastime of a psychopathic killer. Powerful people with a dangerous agenda have taken an interest in the menace. Though Redzone wants you to think it's a crime drama at the outset, some early clues tip you off to what it's really wanting to be. Characters better suited to Hollywood-style action scenes get their opportunity to shine after a brief stretch of tepid LAPD introduction is immediately forgotten when the bullets start flying. From then on, it's a relentless action thrill ride as the manhunt dashes across the American Southwest. Once the characters find their places in the story, the dips back into crime drama territory realize their function as narrative pacemakers, making Redzone equally appealing as an action-filled power fantasy and a dark, character-driven criminal investigation.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)