JULIE KRAMER – Stalking Susan. Doubleday, hardcover, July 2008. Reprint paperback: Anchor, June 2009.

   First in the series following the adventures of investigative reporter Riley Spartz, Stalking Susan is set in the Twin Cities.

   Returning to work at the TV station after being widowed and going through a rough mourning period, she hopes to revive her flagging career by finding a serial-killer link between murder victims connected only by their first name, Susan, and the month and day on which they were killed, November 19.

   The plot is clever, and Riley untangles the mystery cleverly and tenaciously. The Minneapolis/St. Paul setting is accurately portrayed, and the characters are reasonably engaging, though Riley is a rather conventional mystery heroine: independent, 30-something, saddled with a tragic romantic past — and of course her late husband and her current would-be suitor had or have careers in law enforcement.

   The author, an investigative producer, visited the March meeting of Saints & Sinners, my local book club, to discuss both this and the second in the series, Missing Mark. The third, Silencing Sam, will be released in hardcover this summer.