I'm not sure if this is available other than as an audiobook or second hand. My link is to the audiobook, though I read it rather than listened. I have every confidence it's well worth a listen.
Louis Tanner is an ex-cop, scarred by memories and experiences and just about keeping himself afloat. He's obsessed with the murders of the Chain Killer, whose return he sees first hand while taking a drink with a friend when a couple are pulled from a swampy lagoon, chained back-to-back and tattooed with the mark of the murderer.
The scene is also witnessed by a teenage girl, Sookie, a streetwise child of an insane world who is just about managing to survive the dangers she encounters in daily life. As well as seeing the bodies, she clocks Tanner, something that creates a fascination with the man that will send her deeper into peril.
Tanner gets in touch with an old colleague on the force, Frank Carlucci. Though they share the same ambition in terms of solving the case, they're cagey with each other and both are mean with their truths.
The Chain Killer's return means Tanner has to leave the relative safety of an anarchic society based in a world of environmental unpleasantness and general chaos, to enter another area of his city where insanity reigns. Nobody in their right mind would enter The Core, so Tanner fits right in.
The backdrop for the search for the killer is fantastic, essentially because Russo has created a cast of misfits, tribes and subcultures that demonstrate a wonderful imagination. They are visually stunning and their behaviour is unorthodox and unpredictable, Tanner's nemesis being among the most bizarre.
Tanner's mission is tense and gripping. There's a real edge to the work and the ending has a real edge that befits the story.
Definitely one to seek out.
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