That high school girls can be self-centered and cruel is
certainly not news. But one always hopes that their victims have someone who
has their backs. Sadly, no one had Penny Gray’s back. So it took several days
for her mother to even realize she was missing. And even then, she didn’t care.
When the body popped out of the trunk of a car on New Year’s
Eve, the limo driver who hit it thought he’d seen a zombie. Immediately
nicknamed “Zombie Doe,” Minneapolis
detectives Nikki Liska and Sam Kovac act on the assumption that the young woman
was the ninth victim of a killer they’ve dubbed Doc Holiday, due to his
penchant for killing young women on holidays. Problem is, the killer has been
snatching girls in one city and dumping them in another. The victim could have
been from anywhere.
But as it turns out, Zombie Doe was a local girl. As Liska
and Kovac try to solve the details of her horrible death, they learn that her
life was just as tragic. And meanwhile, Doc Holiday is carrying out his plan to
claim another victim.
Tami Hoag’s The 9th
Girl is a taut police procedural. Adding to the tension is Hoag’s spot-on
depiction of nasty teen cliques and the fear that keeps even kind teens from
standing up to them. “I promise you,”
Liska tells her teen-aged son, “you won’t die of high school.” Reading this,
one can see why some teens might not believe her.
This is a terrific thriller.
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