This violent and riveting noir thriller—second in the Mulhenney & Poole series—follows an investigative reporter and medical examiner in 1968 California on the bloody trail of a killer leaving horrifically maimed bodies in her wake. A parallel story features Alena, a woman with physical disfigurements and psychological damage, and her involvement with a brutal mob family. Meanwhile, the characters face history and the fallout from the assassination of Robert Kennedy in Los Angeles. The three women battle their own inner demons as their tasks, and obsessions, bring them toward an explosive finish.

Zell’s fascinating characters will grab readers’ attention. Sara Poole is an especially rich personality, full of startling and yet believable contradictions—a dispassionate scientist who nevertheless is capable of terrifying violence. Deanne Mulhenney is also fully drawn, with an engaging mix of ambition, talent and fear. But the most remarkable is the chilling Alena, who’s given a backstory from the grimmest days of World War II. The various plotlines get a little tangled, and it can be hard to keep track of everyone's motives (including the factions in internal mob wars), but the leads never fail to enthrall.

Zell excels in bold staging, and the frequent scenes of sex and violence are equally lavish. One death has "blood gushing between the fingers he clasped tightly to his throat… Zasha drew a pistol from the waistband of her pants and shot the dying man through the forehead," and a scene between lovers is comparably evocative: she felt "fingers on the back of her thighs, sliding her dress up to her waist...the warmth of her fingers traveled slowly, surely, then deeply inside her." These scenes, like another that walks a fine line between seduction and rape, may offend some readers but pack a serious punch. The engaging cast and their predilection for sumptuously presented sex and violence make this a definite page turner.

Takeaway: Fans of character-driven thrillers with passionate action will revel in Mantis.

Great for fans of: Robert Ludlum, Lee Child.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: B+
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: B+
Marketing copy: B