When a woman claiming to be the previously deceased Charlie Matheson shows up in a U.K. town, it's not just her outrageous claims of identity that have the police bewildered, but also the healed ritualistic scars that have been carved into her face. She's disoriented but insistent that she is who she says she is. Detective Mark Nelson, an experienced, perceptive criminal interviewer who started his career on an unsolved serial killer case years earlier, is brought in to discover the truth behind it all.
Meanwhile, Detective David Groves keeps putting one foot in front of the other, relying on pure faith in God and his police job to keep him going after the abduction and death of his young son years ago. A birthday card arrives for his son unexpectedly, however, and sets him on a path to uncover the identity of the killers.
It's up to Nelson to push past the objections of his team to find out how Charlie's reappearance is connected to the deceased serial killer from his past. Groves, too, must go beyond his training to find who killed his son.
The Reckoning on Cane Hill by Steve Mosby (The Murder Code) feels creepy from page one, never letting up on the alarming possibilities that haunt the detectives' every step. The journey to the terrifying conclusion is a pleasurably frightening one, filled with solid characterization, jigsaw puzzle plotting and a thorough sense of evil. Fans of horror and police fiction will find plenty to enjoy in Mosby's unsettling brand of crime thriller. --Rob LeFebvre, freelance writer/editor