Stalked

November 5, 2007
In Freeman's chilling, atmospheric latest, Jonathan Stride returns from a Las Vegas stint (in Stripped
) to head the major crimes detective bureau of his former Duluth, Minn., department. When the husband of Maggie Bei, Stride's former detective partner, is murdered, Maggie becomes the prime suspect, and Stride determines to clear her. Meanwhile, Dan Erickson, an ambitious Duluth county attorney, hires Stride's lover, PI Serena Dial (who returned with Stride from Vegas), to pay off a blackmailer. Freeman slowly weaves the cases together into a labyrinthine search for a serial killer. Following the anonymous predator as well as the cops, the reader is teased by the fiend's identity and hidden motives. The stalwart, intuitive Stride digs into the case's disparate elements, including the city's sexual underworld, and a terrified Serena runs into serious trouble. A strong narrative crammed with twists and studded with sex and violence; a mysterious, even mystical, sense of place; and a well-crafted set of characters and relationships make this one of Freeman's stronger crime thrillers.

Starred review from November 1, 2007
When Maggie Sorenson, a cop in Duluth, MN, finds her husband murdered in their home, she knows the spouse is always the prime suspect. Jonathan Stride, her partner, her best friend, and the chief of detectives, is off the case but trying to help, as is his lover, Serena, an ex-cop from Las Vegas and now a private investigator. Stride also is busy with an old murder case and a newly missing woman, while Serena is in the middle of a disturbing blackmail case. A vicious convict who literally escaped from the dead returns from Serena's past, and there are more murdersand perhaps more than one killer. Minnesota winter weather makes a stark backdrop to vivid depictions of Duluth neighborhoods, but it is the twists and turns of the complex plot that drive this heated tale. Freeman just keeps outdoing himself with each book. This third thriller involving Stride and Serena (after "Immoral" and "Stripped") is a striking display of skilled storytelling that will have readers surprised more than once well before the shocking ending. Highly recommended for fiction collections.Roland Person, Southern Illinois Univ. Lib., Carbondale

Copyright 2007 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2007
Back on his home turf after cracking a killer case in Las Vegas (Stripped, 2006), Duluth, Minnesota, detective Jonathan Stride finds his cop partner, Maggie, at the top of the suspect list when her husband is killed. (The couple was having marital problems, but Stride knows Maggie is incapable of murder.) Turns out, Maggie was involved in a local sex club whose unsavory goings-on made her the target of a stalker. After a beautiful, dangerously manipulative young woman disappearsand is then found deadStride fears the incidents are related but cant yet connect the dots. Meanwhile, Strides lover, private investigator Serena Dial, feels she, too, is being pursued after she serves as the go-between in a blackmailing scheme. Freeman delivers a swift plot packed with satisfying twists, but his third novels unsettling subject matter may be a bit much for squeamish readers. Hes at his best rendering the bitter beauty of winter in his native Minnesota: The blizzard was a banshee here, he writes, a woman in white stretching to the sky and screaming for the dead.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)