Straight into Darkness — Faye Kellerman

LUSTMORD: The joy of murder.

The terrifying concept seems apt for the slaying of a young society wife dumped in the vast English Garden in 1929 Munich. Homicide inspector Axel Berg is horrified by the crime and disturbed by the artful arrangement of the victim's clothes and hair -- a madman's portrait of death.

Berg's superiors demand a quick arrest; anyone who can be demonized will do. When a second body is discovered, the city erupts into panic, the unrest fomented by a wild-eyed, hate-mongering Adolf Hitler and his Brownshirt party of young thugs. Berg can trust no one as he hunts a ruthless killer, dodging faceless enemies and back-alley intrigue, struggling to bring a fiend to justice before his country -- and his life -- veer...STRAIGHT INTO DARKNESS.