Face Of A Killer by Robin Burcell is the first book in the new “Sydney Fitzpatrick” series. Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press, November 2008
FBI forensic artist Sydney Fitzpatrick questions the guilt of the man about to be executed for her father’s murder twenty years earlier. The first stirrings of doubt occur when one of her forensic sketches on an unrelated case brings forth memories about her father’s homicide that she’d hoped to forget. A mysterious envelope arrives in the mail on the anniversary of her father’s death. She opens the packet and discovers a blackmail letter written by her father, an old photo of his army buddies, and a deposit slip from a bank long closed. Refusing to believe that her father was involved in any blackmail scheme, she searches for evidence to clear his name. Her investigation leads to a trail of corruption by high-ranking US political officials, and a meticulous and deadly cover-up by the military and the CIA. The more Special Agent Fitzpatrick digs into her father’s past, the more she finds it riddled with dark secrets and truths, including the fact that her father’s seemingly ordinary military career was anything but stellar or even routine.
FBI forensic artist Sydney Fitzpatrick goes to the prison to see the man who killed her father 20 years ago. He’s scheduled for execution and after speaking with him; Sydney now thinks he’s innocent of the crime. She begins to look into the case and discovers unsettlingly news about her father’s past. Sydney learns that someone put a contract on her life and the person involved is close to someone she knows. As she gets closer to the information that everyone is seeking, her life is threatened either by those who killed her father or by the suspect in the case she is working on. Will she discover the truth before it’s too late? This was a good read and I enjoyed the cat and mouse game played by Sydney and the agents following her and/or the people hiding the truth about what happened 20 years ago. [4 stars – really liked it]
*new-to-me author