The First Cut

The First Cut
Dianne Emley
352 pgs
Ballentine Books
BCC












Amazon Blurb -

A year after surviving a brutal attack, Pasadena, Calif., police officer Nan Vining returns to duty in Emley's sizzling debut, a hard-edged police procedural with a psychic twist. Nan, a 34-year-old single mom who still bears emotional and skin-deep scars, has her mettle tested by her first case back. The gory corpse of young, blonde LAPD vice cop Frankie Lynde, who got "too close to her work," murmurs a cryptic message to Nan at the crime scene. Nan's ability to hear the dead may be connected to her near-death experience or may be a symptom of post-traumatic stress, but it does help crack Frankie's case and eerily provides a clue about Nan's unknown attacker, whom she and her 14-year-old daughter, Emily, dubbed T.B. Mann or "The Bad Man." Readers will cheer as the fast-paced, high-stakes investigation empowers Nan to triumph over a repugnant criminal and her fears. 
*****

Officer Frankie Lynde has gotten herself in a life taking situation with a man who is far from normal even though the mask he wears fools everyone in society.  He is a kinky wacko who holds her for days only to kill and dump her body with the help of his former stripper wife Pussycat.  Det. Nan Vining has just returned from a year’s leave of absence due to a brutal attack she survived at the hands of a psycho killer she has dubbed T.B. Mann.  He left her stabbed in the neck, bleeding out on a kitchen floor, and she actually flat lined for two minutes.  Now she’s back and on the case to solve Frankie’s murder at the hands of John Lesley, a wealthy night club owning social climber who is the sweetheart of all the wanna-be’s whether they’re higher ups in the police department to actors and actresses.

Nan is fighting her ghosts to hold it together on this investigation.  Hearing Frankie’s corpse speaking to her, listening to sound recordings and hearing voices that aren’t there, she fights to finish this and avenge Frankie.  Some her fellow cops are skeptical if she can do this and worry about her well being.  Her partner and former lover Det. Jim Kissick is one or them.

Will she fight her demons and get the bad guy?  Read this book and find out!  I really liked this story, I found Emley a great author.  Her story flowed seamlessly for me, not to hung up on details which can sometimes drag a thriller down.  I will definitely read more in this series.

4 cannolis