THE TROPHY EXCHANGE ISBN 978-0-7278-6635-6 Severn House Publishers
Life’s been rough for Lieutenant Lucinda Pierce. She lost an eye and disfigured her face responding to a domestic violence call.
She accidentally killed a small child in the middle of shoot-out with his father.Now, she’s up against a serial killer and her main suspect is a highly respected doctor known for his international relief work.It’s a good thing she doesn’t mind bending the rules.
In her new fast-paced novel, THE TROPHY EXCHANGE, Edgar Award nominee Diane Fanning introduces a charismatic, unforgettable heroine to the crime genre. With thrilling precision and a breakneck pace, this novel heralds the beginning of a remarkably promising new series featuring a protagonist as tough and as vulnerable as they come.
(Starred) THE TROPHY EXCHANGE, Diane Fanning, Jul 2008, 256pp, Severn House hardcover, $27.95. (9780727866356) A physically and emotionally scarred detective gets a chance to change her life. Lucinda Pierce has recently returned to duty after being cleared in the accidental shooting of a child. Her face still bears the scars she suffered in the domestic violence case, which cost her an eye, but she’s refused plastic surgery to fix the damage. When Charley Spencer finds the body of her brutally murdered mother, Lucinda is drawn to her. But she suspects that Charley’s father, Dr. Evan Spencer, may be the murderer even though he was out of the country at the time. After a missing item of jewelry is found on another murder victim, Lucinda and her partner Ted conclude that they’re dealing with a serial killer. Each victim was strangled; each one’s face was brutally smashed after death; a piece of jewelry that belonged to a previous victim is found on each body. Dr. Spencer’s unusual reaction to his wife’s murder and the appearance of a strange woman at his house only spur Lucinda on to prove his guilt. When a victim manages to escape the killer and identifies her attacker as Spencer, the case takes a strange turn. After all, Spencer was in police custody at the time of the attack.
Fanning (Bite the Moon, 2007, etc.) has produced an exciting, emotionally intense story with a complex heroine whose future adventures will be widely anticipated.
Library Journal
(Starred) Fanning, Diane. The Trophy Exchange: A Lucinda Pierce Mystery. Severn House. Aug. 2008. c.249p. ISBN 978-0-7278-6635-6. $27.95. When eight-year-old Charley Spencer finds her mother’s brutally murdered body, Lt. Lucinda Pierce catches the case. Pierce has been damaged both physically and emotionally by events in her life but has survived to become a stellar homicide detective, as she demonstrates in pursuing vicious killers. Fanning (Bite the Moon) provides plenty of forensic details, plot twists, and suspense. Though this near-perfect police procedural is not for the faint of heart, readers who like Kate Flora and Alex Kava will put it on their reserve lists. Highly recommended.
BOOKLIST
The Trophy Exchange. Fanning, Diane (Author), Jun 2008. 240 p. Severn, hardcover, $27.95. 9780727866356.
After a long and soul-searching healing process following her last case, homicide investigator Lucinda Pierce is ready to return to active duty. Her first case back involves the death of a young mother, Dr. Kathleen Spencer, whose body was found by her two young daughters, Charley and Ruby, their mother’s face unrecognizable after having been savagely crushed. The cop on the scene is Ted Branson, one of Lucinda’s old flames. More dead bodies emerge, all killed in the same face-smashing manner, turning Lucinda’s murder investigation into a serial-killer panic. Though she started out tentatively, Lucinda finds the work cathartic, helping her regain her confidence and womanhood. But will her emotional growth get her too personally involved in yet another case, so much so that she is put in peril? Fanning’s true-crime writing experience gives the story added verisimilitude, and she has made great strides at tightening her storytelling. She is one to watch.
Book Club Queen:
We all know by now that I'm a mystery lover and have read more than my fair share of books in this genre. So when I shout out "5 Stars" at the top of my lungs for Diane Fanning's The Trophy Exchange it is with extreme enthusiasm.
Every now and then you encounter a book that just speaks to you. You can't put it down, you run the gamut of emotions from anger to fear to elation so intensely that you feel as if you are riding in the front pocket of the narrator. Read More
