Received for review.

Sloane Burbank is making use of civilian life after leaving the FBI, teaching Krav Maga self-defense classes. A call from the mother of a childhood friend will quickly bring her back to her old career associations, however. Sloan's friend Penny has been missing for close to a year, and her case is stalled. Penny's mother hires Sloane to dig a little more and see if she can get the investigation moving again.

As similarities between Penny's disappearance and newer abductions begin to surface, Sloane is determined to discover the common denominator in the crime spree that may lead to the killer. In the meantime, she'll need to work her FBI connections to get all of the information she can, and that includes ex-boyfriend Derek Parker. To make matters more difficult, Derek isn't ready to move quietly past the breakup. The two are going to have to work through their differences if they want to capture the murderer before another woman becomes his prey. Time is of the essence.

I wanted to like this book; I really did. But it reminded me too much of a newer J. D. Robb novel I'm also reading, Creation in Death, that was initially released almost a year before Twisted. Both contain a strong female law enforcement agent who becomes the ultimate prize of a deranged serial killer. But while Robb's novel contains actual legwork and investigating on the part of the main characters, Kane's novel seems to be comprised of a lot of filler to make up for the fact that they feed all of the information into a computer and let it solve the mystery. And the probability is slim of the computer pinpointing the murderer in the detailed way that it does, based on the limited clues it was running.

I also couldn't figure out why the author kept throwing in "9/11" like Rudi Giuliani on a campaign trail. It really had nothing to do with any of the events in the book, as far as I can see. There was the fact that many FBI agents were transferring to counterterrorism units, but it bore no relevance to the case Sloane was working on.

Twisted's strongpoint is that the reader is kept in suspense regarding the identity of the killer until late in the book. Once that first big clue arrives, the climax takes off. Of course, strong female protagonists make for good material and high sales these days. We don't like our women weak and submissive any longer. Sloane Burbank does not disappoint.

In summary, I'd have to say Twisted is a pretty good light mystery with a little romance thrown in. Don't expect intricate networks and convoluted clues to tease the brain. If you keep hoping for a challenge, you're not going to get it. Is there such a thing as mystery "fluff?"

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