Certain Prey by John Sandford (1999)

Lucas Davenport vs Clara Rinker.

Pretty. 5’3″ or so.

Clara’s had a tough life. Raped by her step father. Ran away to become a teenaged stripper.

Her main job now is to run the bar she owns in Wichita, Kansas – The Rink.

Side job ➙ Hitwoman. And she’s very good at killing people. The best hitwoman in the business.

And in this book, Rinker partners up with another killer. Double trouble.

Her latest hit sounds simple: a defense attorney wants a rival eliminated. No problem—until a witness survives. Clara usually knows how to deal with loose ends: cut them off, one by one, until they’re all gone. This time, there’s one loose end that’s hard to shake.

Lucas Davenport has no idea of the toll this case is about to take on him. Clara knows his weak spots. She knows how to penetrate them, and how to use them. And when a woman like Clara has the advantage, no one is safe.

Rinker returns in another book ➙ Mortal Prey.

This is one of the Prey books adapted for a TV movie (2012). Mark Harmon plays Davenport.

Click PLAY or watch the trailer on YouTube.

Women’s Murder Club books 7, 8, 9, 10

This sequence I enjoyed more than the first 6 books.

Lindsay Boxer, Cindy Thomas, Claire Washburn and Jill Bernhardt—stars of 1st to Die2nd Chance and 3rd Degree—are the founding members of the Women’s Murder Club.

Yuki Castellano joins the Club in 4th of July. Together, they solve crimes in their home city of San Francisco and often meet up to talk about clues and life, over Mexican food and drinks at Susie’s.

A terrible fire in a wealthy suburban home leaves a married couple dead and Detective Lindsay Boxer and her partner Rich Conklin searching for clues. And after California’s golden boy Michael Campion has been missing for a month, there finally seems to be a lead in his case-a very devastating lead.

As fire after fire consume couples in wealthy, comfortable homes, Lindsay and the Murder Club must race to find the arsonists responsible and get to the bottom of Michael Campion’s disappearance. But suddenly the flames are raging too close to home.

good too. The 8th Confession 2010.

Someone is killing the richest people in the city-and the Women’s Murder Club will pay a high price for hunting him.

At the party of the year, San Francisco’s most glamorous couple is targeted by a killer-and it’s the perfect murder.

While Detective Lindsay Boxer investigates the high-profile killings, a saintly street preacher is brutally executed. Reporter Cindy Thomas inquires into this neglected case …

The 9th Judgment 2011.

During an intimate dinner party, a cat burglar breaks into the home of A-list actor Marcus Dowling. When his wife walks in on the thief, the situation quickly teeters out of control, leaving an empty safe and a lifeless body. 

The same night, a woman and her infant child are ruthlessly gunned down in an abandoned garage. The killer hasn’t left a shred of evidence, except for a foreboding and cryptic message: WCF, the letters written in blood-red letters. 

I quite enjoyed , as well. 10th Anniversary 2012.

Detective Lindsay Boxer’s long-awaited wedding celebration becomes a distant memory when she is called to investigate a horrendous crime: a badly injured teenage girl is left for dead, and her newborn baby has been kidnapped without a trace.

As her marriage begins to suffer from the pressures of work and her new boss watches her every move, Lindsay discovers that the victim may be keeping secrets as well.

At the same time, Assistant District Attorney Yuki Castellano is prosecuting the biggest case of her life-a woman who has been accused of murdering her husband in front of her two young children.

Yuki’s career rests on a guilty verdict, so when Lindsay finds evidence that could save the defendant, she is forced to choose. Should she trust her best friend or follow her instinct?