A thriller promises a heinous crime that is imminent: There is urgency, mounting suspense, a quickened pulse as pages turn. One reads a thriller to be frightened in safe surroundings. But often they are formulaic, failing to scare.

Not so with this debut novel, which introduces a homicide cop, Mike McCabe, an appealing man who respects women, loves kids, and is brighter than most. He has the memory of a hard drive, storing extraneous facts that he can retrieve and attach to a loose end, connecting strands of information until a meaningful pattern emerges. In McCabe’s line of work, that’s a useful talent.

He has moved to Portland, Maine, looking for a fresh start after his wife deserted him. Portland is a low crime area, flush with urban amenities. It’s a decent place to raise his teenage daughter, and he lands a job with the Crimes Against People Division of the Police Department.

His success as a “star” detective in the Big Apple precedes him, arousing some resentment from the local enforcers, mixed with a respect for his professionalism. Thankfully, the dialogue is not overly cluttered with the departmental banter that typically stalls a detective story.

The plot begins with a grisly, horrific killing, so excruciating that Hannibal Lecter seems gentle by comparison. The nude body of a young woman is found in a scrap yard, her heart cut out in a meticulous way. Rather than a slash, there is a cutting that suggests a surgeon’s skill.

The oddity of the murder has McCabe thinking back to an unsolved crime that occurred in Florida several years earlier. The heart of that victim was also missing. The gruesome aspects are not for the squeamish. Next, an athletic jogger, Lucinda Cassidy, disappears, and it is clear that she has been abducted.

These crimes shout that a madman is loose in Portland. The precise cutting is a signature, and McCabe must determine if the perpetrator is a blood-lusting maniac killing for thrills, or a trained murderer with a larger objective. Either way the clock is ticking on Lucinda’s life.

You will suspect the motivation behind the crimes before McCabe, but your insight was intended. Bookstores have been looking for a writer of popular fiction who can reliably produce a bestseller. James Hayman, a Brown grad, has invented a cop with sophisticated tastes. If your summer reading includes a psychological thriller, this one’s for you.

jimandy111@cox.net