James Patterson teams up with Marshall Karp for thrilling second instalment of the NYPD Red series. This time around, Zack Jordan and Kylie MacDonald are dealing with a serial killer who's out for the wrong kind of justice.

When the book begins, the Hazmat Killer - named for displaying his or her dead victims in hazmat suits - has already killed three people after forcing them to give video confessions. It's a tactic that would anger Dexter Morgen for sure. But Red is only called in when victim number four, a local celebrity, is found tied to the carousel in Central Park. What follows is a politically storm of the highest order, with the mayor doing everything he can to interfere in order to retain his job at an election that will go down in just a few days. Zack and Kylie really feel the pressure here.

The book takes a few twists on it's way to finding the killer, and for good measure, a dangerous mafia dynasty with a personal vendetta is thrown in, adding an extremely tense climax. A few personal issues help keep characters on their toes, adding a new layer to the story. Zack has a girlfriend now, but their relationship is throated by an annoying English computer geek who apparently has the hots for her. Kylie's husband, meanwhile, has become addicted to painkillers following the events of the previous novel, straining her relationship with him and potentially her ability to solve the case.

Quick read with good character development. The villains are hard to guess and the romantic entanglements are believable. Plan to drop it at a Little Free Library locally.

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