Sacred Evil by Heather Graham, a book review

Sacred Evil
By Heather Graham

Near Hell's Kitchen of New York City an actress is violently murdered. If Detective Jude Crosby's suspicions are correct, there's a copy cat killer of Jack the Ripper and the body count promises to climb. The FBI assigns the Adam Harrison team. Special Agent Whitney Tremont, a team member, is the first to arrive and shadows his investigation.

Deputy Chief Green makes it clear, "play nice with the FBI", but when Jude learns from Hannah Mills, Tech Support representative on the task force, that they are a bunch of glorified ghost hunters, he's not pleased. He appreciates the support but not the theatrical tag if their partnership is revealed. Ghosts? Preposterous. He's determined a living person is committing these murders. This far fetched tag gives the criminals yet another excuse to justify their bad deeds.

Crosby is surprised from the start by Whitney's true professionalism. Rather than the typical FBI trait of taking command, she follows his lead, blending in, and when she does interrupt, she shines. Whitney's already worked with law enforcement where their ego is more important than solving the case, but Crosby seems to care that the victims get justice. Once their mutual respect is attained, their attraction grows. Can a ghost hunter have a relationship with a nonbeliever? Even though the killer’s assaults follow history‘s details, he is not following the time frame. Using cunning and the dark arts his sinister nature is and true identity is revealed.

Go figure. I liked this book. Why do I sound cynical? Because this is book two of a trilogy. I wasn't impressed by Heart of Evil, the second in the series (oops, missed the first one) and although I enjoyed the premise in book one, I was glad to finish it. So I picked up book two, Sacred Evil, with some tribulation. Surprise! Within two pages my toes were curling and I was craving that box of chocolate. That's always a good sign for a book, but not for my waist.

They were well written, creative, suspenseful and romance, of course. So, what made the second book so different? The place. I've never read her characters in New York. Southeast USA, you betcha. Ms Graham has this wonderful ability to develop the setting seem like it is a character in her books. I recognized the location. Is there anybody that hasn’t heard of New York City and seen countless television shows? She used well-known history: Jack the Ripper and bootlegging. She makes this story feasible. Because he was never caught, why couldn't he have come to the USA? Why couldn't his alias have been Jonathan Black? She had me so fooled that that I looked Blair House up on the Internet. I've got egg on my face.

Read! Enjoy!