With the crime genre groaning at the seams with authors, it's hard to imagine there's much room left for many new additions to the fold. But there is, and her name is Theresa Monsour. Clean Cut is a debut novel that is as assured as it is powerful and looks destined to kickstart Monsour to the pantheon of crime writers. Her heroine is one Paris Murphy, an Irish-Lebanese detective, who, together with her partner Gabe Nash, is on the hunt for a rather unpleasant serial killer who's not adverse to a spot of necrophilia and depilation. But things turn even nastier when the killer starts hunting her. This is a very gripping debut. There are strong echoes of Michael Connelly in the jazz references and travelogue-like details, and both share the same desire to tell as exciting a story as possible. Monsour wins out in the gore stakes though, with more gruesome images than Connelly ever allows. Be warned -- there are vivid descriptions of the killer at work which are definitely not for the faint-hearted. Paris' own reactions to the rapes add a deeper layer of complexity to the plot and shows that Monsour is unafraid to tackle contentious issues. A bona fide page-turner.
