The Cutting by James Hayman

Detective Mike McCabe left his career as a homicide detective in New York City.  He has bad memories there.  His brother was gunned down and killed there and his marriage fell apart.  The department had him under a cloud of suspicion after he ended up shooting the man who killed his brother.  With all of that baggage, moving to Portland, Maine should give him a new start. 

But Portland isn't as restful as he thought it would be.  A teenage soccer star went missing and is found a week later dead, mutilated with her heart missing.  When he checks, he suspects this isn't the first murder like this and another woman just went missing.  On top of that, his ex-wife after three years has decided it's time to re-enter his daughter's life.

McCabe and his partner, Maggie Savage investigate and soon have a suspect.  They start to believe that this is a pattern that has occurred many more times than they suspected and that it concerns a group rather than one individual.  When the conspiracy appears to have roots in Florida, New York, Boston and North Carolina, they realize that they are facing something no one has seen before.  Can they find the killer before more women are killed?

This is the first book in the McCabe/Savage series.  which has five novels at the time of this review.  This one is a promising start with fully drawn lead characters and a fast-paced plot that still gives the reader a view into police procedure.  Although the plot line has been done before, Hayman breathes fresh life into it and his characters and the tensions between them insure the reader's attention is retained until the end.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.