Kissing the Demons

When their superintendent asks DCI Emily Thwaite and DI Joe Plantagenet to investigate the suspected involvement of local MP Barrington Jenks in the disappearance of two teenage girls 12 years earlier, they know they're entering politically charged waters. Then, having hardly begun on the Jenks case, they're asked to check on the disappearance of university student Petulia Ferribie, who lived at 13 Torland Place with three fellow students. Joe and Emily are perplexed when they learn that the house is also linked to the disappearance of the teenagers in the Jenks case and that a mass murderer killed five people there in 1868. Bizarre coincidence? Don't bet on it. After Petulia's mutilated body is found, and another woman disappears, it looks like a serial killer's on the loose. As seasoned as the two cops are, they are stunned by what they discover in the nooks and crannies of 13 Torland Place. This is a solid, modern-day police procedural with disturbingly dark undercurrents that will appeal to fans of cop-shop dramas and haunted-house mysteries. -- Booklist, May 1, 2011