Miami, It’s Murder

Britt is back, and the tough, charismatic Cuban-American reporter is investigating a series of bizarre deaths involving terminal sex, electrocution, and freshly poured concrete. With a dying detective as her friend and source, Britt probes the unsolved sex murder of a small girl, which may implicate the rich and powerful front-runner in the governor's race. She also follows the trail of a terrifying serial rapist who ambushes career women in the restrooms of the gleaming downtown towers that spike the Miami skyline. The quest takes her from the sterile and antiseptic police crime lab and its forensic experts into the dark heart of Santeria, a blood-fueled religion linked to spells, symbols, sacrifice, and the occult. Enraged at Britt's stories, the rapist escalates his violence and focuses his obsession on her. Stalked by the shadowy rapist, on the trail of a serial killer, Britt comes ever closer to learning the shocking truth as tensions mount and the stories intersect with edge-of-the-seat suspense and an astonishing conclusion.

Prize history

• Edgar Award for Best Novel

  1995

  Nominee