Anonymous

PI Madison Kelly, the heroine of Breck's captivating debut and series launch, is spending her self-imposed sabbatical listening to a true crime podcast that focuses on the cold cases of two young women who went missing two years apart from the same San Diego, Calif., neighborhood. She also tweets comments on the cases. One day, she returns from a jog to find a note nailed to her oceanfront apartment door: "Stop investigating me or I will hunt you down and kill you. BITCH. No police." A strand of long blonde hair is pinned to the note. Madison is puzzled, since she has no open cases at the moment. On a whim, she makes a cryptic tweet and immediately gets a response from someone apparently connected to the disappearances who thinks Madison is involved. Curious, Madison embarks on an investigation, in which she interviews a host of suspects, many of whom, including one victim's ex-boyfriend, turn out to have hidden and surprising agendas. Solving the case of one victim still leaves the other an intriguing mystery. Readers will look forward to seeing more of this tough, competent detective. Agent: Abby Saul, Lark Group. (Nov.)

A freelance San Diego insurance investigator thinking of expanding her practice sees her wish fulfilled when she's stalked by a sex killer. "Stop investigating me or I will hunt you down and kill you. BITCH. No police," reads the note pinned to Madison Kelly's front door. The threat is not only unsettling, but inaccurate, since Maddie's between jobs and isn't investigating anybody. But then she recalls that she's been poking around informally in a case recently profiled on the podcast Crawlspace: the disappearances of Samantha Erickson after she left a bar in the Gaslamp District four years ago and of Elissa Alvarez after she left another bar two years later. Despite, or maybe because of, the message, Maddie doubles down in her efforts and soon finds Elissa's cellphone near the parking lot where she was last seen--quite a coup considering that her friend Detective Thomas Clark, of San Diego Homicide, hasn't found it himself during the past two years. As Maddie identifies suitably unsuitable men who might have done away with Samantha and Elissa, first-timer Breck, herself an insurance investigator, multiplies the suspicious men in Maddie's own orbit who just might be her stalker: her downstairs neighbor Ryan, a surfer in graduate school; her friend Dave Rich, who's been her lover but never her boyfriend; Tom's drinking buddy Ken Larrabee, who's clearly interested in her; and Tom himself, who's never enjoyed Maddie's sexual favors even though his wife is convinced that he has. Beneath all the expository passages beats a brave heart that deserves a sequel showing sharper sleuthing chops. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.