Before Detective Mason Hill found the body on Crescent Drive, there was a note. Before the note, there were four women. And before the women, there was a man who believed what he was doing was right.
Mason sees the pattern. What he doesn't see, not yet, is the man behind it. He moves through the city quietly and in no particular hurry. He doesn't think of himself as a killer. He thinks of himself as a correction.
Maggie Stewart is an attorney, a mother on a custody schedule, and the fifth name on a list she doesn't know exists. She's seen him. Spoken to him. Sat beside him on a park bench while the afternoon passed and nothing seemed wrong. By the time she understands what that means, she's already left a voicemail for a detective who hasn't checked his messages.
Nine miles from the answer, Mason Hill is still working on the question.
The 5th Victim is the prequel to the Mason Hill series — a noir novella told from three sides of the same collision: a detective slowly closing in, a killer who believes he's owed this, and a woman who almost got out in time. The clues were there. The voicemail was waiting.
Some cases end before they're solved.
