Last Place by Laura Lippman
Book 7 in the Tess Monaghan, Baltimore PI series
Tess has a past that haunts her. Her ex-boyfriend was killed years prior (read the 1st book - Baltimore Blues) and she continues to suffer from occasional nightmares, reliving his death. Plus she has issues with anger management, which are portrayed in the opening chapter as she deals with a potential child molester. After beating him unconscious and covering him with depilatory cream, then leaving him in a public place so he'll be too ashamed to do it again. She is arrested and sentenced to court ordered anger management counseling. We see her progress through her weekly sessions as she tries to move on with her life.
Tess's wealthy friend, Whitney, offers her a private investigator assignment which involves reviewing old, unsolved domestic abuse murder cases in order to help bring about lobbying for funding and training for small town cops handling domestic abuse situations. Whitney is part of a group of several non profit foundations that have joined together and are in search of ways to reduce the number of domestic-violence homicides in their state. Though Tess's old archenemy, Luisa O'Neal, is somewhat involved in the group, Tess accepts the assignment with the understanding that Luisa is not an active member of the board.
There is a list of five unsolved cases for Tess to investigate. She was not hired to search for the killer but rather to check into the specifics of the police investigations on each file. Initially, the cases do not seem connected but then Tess begins to question whether or not they are in some way. She always begins to wonder if Luisa O'Neal had more involvement in this project than Tess was told about, or anyone was told, for that matter. Soon Tess is questioning everything and everyone looking for the link.
I really enjoy this series and it is a treat read to this one as it was really different because so little of it took place in Baltimore but rather the small towns around it. After chasing down several of the cases Tess can't figure out why she was brought into investigating these cold cases as there are no simliarities until she meets retired cop, Carl Dewitt, and together they come to the chilling realization that there is a serial killer on their hands. To throw some more excitement into the mix are the alternative chapters from the killer's point of view and we discover way before Tess, that Tess is his latest target.