Blood Eagle — Roy A. Teel Jr.

“I thought this was a mythical manner of torture.” Back Matter:Steven Black had two obsessions: books and Joanne Fontaine, the head librarian for Los Angeles County. While Fontaine was pleasant, she was also firm in her disinterest in dating. Steven was also the heir to Black Robotics, an AI company founded by his late father and managed by Beverly Hampton, a young aggressive executive. When Steven’s brutalized body is found near the library entrance, law enforcement is drawn into an investigation of savage cruelty reminiscent of a mythological form of torture. The apparently random killing quickly becomes part of a pattern when the fifteen-year-old daughter of a secret service agent is found similarly brutalized in her own bed, indicating that the nightmarish torture method is, in fact, quite real. Flap Matter:Kristy Yates was a lively, well-liked high school junior when her mother, a senior agent with the Los Angeles office of the Secret Service, found her hanging from wires in her bedroom. Her lungs had been pulled through her back and looked like wings. EMTs declared her dead, and the FBI was called in since Yates’ mother is a federal employee. When Los Angeles County Coroners Jade Morgan and Jessica Holmes arrive on the scene, the two women are greeted by John Swenson and Chris Mantel. Surprisingly, Kristy is still alive and is rushed to Northridge Hospital in an effort to save her life. As the second victim, and the only one found alive, Kristy may hold the clue the Iron Eagle needs to flush out a brutal killer with a depraved taste for murder.