Hanging Hill
*Starred Review* Bath, England, is the site of Hayder’s latest roller-coaster ride into the heart of darkness. With overtones of menace that link the tarot to serial murder, Hayder continues to skirt the edge of the supernatural within the context of a police procedural, defying the reader to prove that she doesn’t really have anything hidden up her sleeve. Hanging Hill introduces a new character, down-to-earth detective inspector Zoe Benedict, who finds herself butting heads with a profiler who seems to be substituting pyschological mumbo jumbo for the process of evidence gathering. Zoe’s stakes in the case are amped off the scale when she finds that her sister and daughter-in-law seem to be in the sadistic killer’s line of fire. It’s unclear whether the novel will launch a new series for Hayder—complementing her acclaimed Walking Man novels (Gone, 2011)—but certainly the fascinating Zoe would make a fine series lead. Hayder’s acclaim in the genre (she is the winner of numerous awards, including, most recently, the 2011 Crime Writers’ Association Dagger in the Library Award) stands only to grow in the wake of her latest triumph. --Elliott Swanson