[Mars Bahr 01] • Third Person Singular · A Mars Bahr Mystery

Set against the black backdrop of a ruthless Minnesota winter, KJ Erickson's debut novel is bursting with masterfully plotted suspense and intricately rendered characters.

Prickly but gifted Minneapolis Special Detective Marshall "Mars" Bahr is a man whose devotion to his eight-year-old son is eclipsed only by his love of the hunt. Mars hasn't won any popularity contests among his fellow officers, but his commitment to his job and his investigative talents have gotten him a plumb assignment: Special Detective in charge of the First Response Unit, reporting directly to the chief.

On a winter morning, when Mars is called to the scene of a homicide near the outskirts of town, his first thought is that a homeless drunk passed out in the wrong place on a freezing cold night. What he finds turns out to be much more menacing, a nightmare case involving a teenage girl from the right side of the tracks.

With few clues and increasing pressure from the mayor on down to apprehend the killer, Mars is forced to turn away from the details of the crime on the bluffs and instead focus on the victim herself. Mary Pat Fitzgerald seemed to have a storybook lifestyle, at least from the outside. With a little digging, however, it becomes clear that appearances can be deceiving. Mars and his partner, Nettie Frisch, turn up some provocative clues in the search to uncover the truth about the young woman's lonely death-- but can they trust them?

Third Person Singular is a multilayered screamer of a debut that will have readers breathlessly awaiting KJ Erickson's next effort.