ABOVE SUSPICION

A new detective heroine from the writer of the acclaimed BBC series Prime Suspect.

Battle-scarred Jane Tennyson moves offstage to make room for a fresh, unlined face. DS Anna Travis, 26, an Oxford graduate only months past her uniform posting, is the daughter of a legendary cop. DCI James Langton is willing to gamble on her for his murder squad because he had his own rookie fat trimmed by Jack Travis, a mentor who taught him well. He hopes the apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree, because the serial killer his team is after is wily, grisly and dauntingly famous—at least if Langton’s guessed right. Ten women in England and the U.S. have been slaughtered with a ferocity worthy of Jack the Ripper. The first nine were prostitutes, but Langton hopes the tenth—heartbreakingly lovely Melissa Stephens, 17—might be the long-awaited critical mistake, the wedge that breaks open the case. Anna thinks so, too. Her growing conviction as she gets more deeply involved in the investigation combines with the good cop’s ingrained sense of what’s due the victims to make her take on a dangerous role as bait for a cunning, well-connected sociopath.

La Plante (Royal Heist, 2004, etc.) has given us a smart, plucky series protagonist who’s enormously likable despite, or because of, her frailties. Think Jane Tennyson in her salad days.