Frank Bennett is excited about his new homicide beat, mostly because he's partnered with the beautiful if inscrutable Eden Archer. Unfortunately for Frank, both Eden and her brother—and fellow officer—Eric combine their police work with a bit of serial killing on the side. When a number of toolboxes containing body parts are discovered in Sydney's harbor, the three uneasy allies must hunt down the madman responsible. Debut author Fox expertly connects alternating chapters that focus on Frank's present and the Archers' childhood with Hades Archer, the chief disposer for Australia's criminal underworld, while making it clear that the current murders may be related to the Archers' past. VERDICT The comparisons to Jeff Lindsay's "Dexter" series will be unavoidable, but this fast-paced first novel, with its unusual protagonists and dark, disturbing scenes stands on its own. Readers will anticipate eagerly the planned sequel. This was well received when released previously as an e-book and should prove equally popular with print readers.—Craig L. Shufelt, Fort Erie P.L., Ont.

Horrors abound in Australian author Fox's first novel, a gritty police procedural set in Sydney. Hades Archer, the crime lord of the Utulla dump, disposes of the waste left over from human lives—and also creates artwork from "warped scraps of metal and pieces of discarded machinery." Hades once rescued two children, Eden and Eric, from a botched kidnapping and raised them to become police homicide detectives: Eden is dangerously intuitive and creative, Eric lethally wild. Eden and her new partner, tough cop Frank Bennett, track a serial killer who kills for body parts he can sell to dying patients desperate for a transplant. In this twisted noir world, love goes as wrong as it can go, as shown in Hades's relationship with the children he saved, and Bennett's relationship with a victim who escaped her captor's chop shop. Readers will look forward to the sequel set in this not-for-the-squeamish nightmare world down under. Agent: Gaby Naher, Naher Agency (Australia). (Feb.)