Blood Moon by Alexandra Sokoloff

FBI Special Agent Mathew Roarke is on a manhunt for a killer who has escaped the best efforts of law enforcement for years; in fact, no one even suspected the killer until recently.  One of the main reasons is that this killer is a woman, a rarity most law enforcement specialists never see.  Cara Lindstrom is a survivor.  As a small child, she survived a brutal attack that killed her entire family.  The killer cut Cara's throat, but she survived, the only witness to his wanton destruction.  Sent to the social services mill, she disappeared when she became an adult, but she didn't leave to live a quiet life.  Instead, the hunted has become the huntress, killing men who use and hurt women.  Roarke is drawn to her, each encounter he has with her leaving him more confused.  He knows she is a killer but can't help but have some sympathy for her.

Now Roarke is on the hunt to put Cara behind bars.  He comes up with the idea of pretending that the killer who destroyed her family is back at work and has his staff find a recent family massacre.  The problem is that when they go to the most recent example, it appears that it is indeed the work of the man who destroyed Cara's family twenty-five years ago.  Can that be true?  Can someone that sick, that depraved, just stop killing for several decades?

As the FBI becomes more certain that the original killer is indeed back at work, Roarke and his team switch focus to track down this man who has destroyed multiple families.  In the process, Roarke knows that he is also getting closer to Cara.  Will he be able to put her behind bars?

Alexandra Sokoloff is writing some of the best suspense done today.  Her plotting is intricate and involved, drawing the reader in further and further into the world of psychotic killers and that of the law enforcement personnel who dedicate their lives to tracking and putting away such killers.  The interplay of emotions between Roarke and Cara as each is in turn, the hunted and the hunter, is mesmerizing.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.