Our Lady of Pain

Book excerpt: In the second novel in Elena Forbes’ bestselling mystery series, DI Mark Tartaglia’s investigation into a murder becomes a hunt for a possible serial killer. Hurting is her special skill. On a snowy February morning, London art dealer Rachel Tenison goes for a jog through Holland Park. Still giddy from the previous evening, her legs wobbly from too much drink and too little sleep, she falls at the bottom of an icy hill. Lying on her back, she savours the sensation of snowflakes melting on her skin and the unexpected stillness of the moment. But then there’s the sharp crack of a tree branch behind her, and a voice softly calling her name. Two days later, detectives Mark Tartaglia and Sam Donovan are assigned to the case when Rachel’s naked, frozen body is discovered in the park, bound and arranged in a strangely symbolic manner. Still haunted by “The Bridegroom,” a chillingly seductive serial killer with a penchant for lonely girls and deadly heights, they’re forced to put the past behind them as they try to catch Rachel’s murderer. But when a tip from a journalist draws their attention to grisly similarities between this and another unsolved crime, the web becomes more tangled than ever.