The Reaping

Alku is a small town in northern Minnesota, settled by Finnish immigrant families. A new murder there repeats the pattern of an unsolved 1998 killing in which a family of five died. The victim's skull has been crushed, as with the earlier victims, and the cold-case killer seems to be back, now taking the town's children one at a time.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension sends two investigators. Harry Steinbeck is a forensic scientist who works strictly by the book. He has never recovered from his sister's disappearance when he was a teenager. His partner, Evangeline "Van" Reed, trusts her instincts and bends rules when she needs to.

Most of the town earns its living at the Carlton County Treatment Center, a former hospital that now houses some of the state's most dangerous killers. The adults of Alku keep their secrets close, and Harry and Van get little help from them.

Old local stories of a Finnish blood witch start circulating again. Harry and Van have to work out whether they are chasing a person in a mask or something worse, while Harry is forced to face what happened to his sister.

This is the second Steinbeck and Reed thriller, after The Taken Ones. It mixes police procedural with slowly building horror.