Human Remains by Elizabeth Haynes

They are everywhere, in large cities and small villages.  They are women, men, young, old, black, white, rich or poor.  The unseen ones.  The people who for whatever reason are all alone in the world.  If they have families, they are out of touch with them.  They walk through life as if they don't exist.  Those who work with them occasionally pass a comment but they aren't included in office parties.  They don't have clubs or nights on the town.  Instead, they go home to silent houses where they spend their time waiting for that night and the next day to pass, just as all the days before have passed.

But in Annabel's town, a killer has noticed the unseen.  Annabel is a police analyst, and she is the person who notices that there have been too many unexplained cases of people who have died in their homes and not been found for quite some time.  There is no one to miss them; those who barely notice them have assumed the person has moved when they stop appearing at work or in the shops.  Most of the cases have been put down to natural causes, but that is the killer's delight.  He manages to target and victimize these individuals without laying a finger on them.  He gains their trust and talks them into dying; just refusing food and water until they pass away.

But now the killer is upping the ante.  He is determined to gain the recognition he so richly deserves and he finds that his past actions no longer satisfy him.  How will he change to gain even more excitement from the deaths that surround him?

Elizabeth Haynes has written a chilling mystery that will have the reader afraid to put down the book, afraid to stop before they know what is being done and how it will all turn out.  The killer is a new kind of criminal, more horrific for his calm demeanor as he wrecks havoc around himself.  This book is recommended for mystery readers who enjoy psychological suspense.