Night Sins (Deer Lake #1) by Tami Hoag

An outstandingly compelling thriller that declares Tami Hoag as the new modern master of suspense.

Deer Lake is a small Minnesota town where people know their neighbours and crime is something that happens on the evening news. But the illusion of safety is shattered when eight-year-old Josh Kirkwood disappears from a hockey rink as he waits for his mother to pick him up after practice. The only thing the police find is his duffel bag with a note stuffed inside, reading 'ignorance is not innocence but SIN'. With each passing hour the search for Josh takes on a more ominous intensity. For Megan O'Malley, the new regional officer of the state criminal investigative unit, it is the first test of whether she can cut it in the all-male world of local cops. For police chief Mitch Holt, it is a frightening reminder of the big city crime that devastetd his life before he fled to Deep Lake.

All the while someone watches, preparing the next move in a deadly game to which only he knows the rules, a game of terrifying clues leading to one final twist of the trail - and a snare set by a warped mind as black as death, as guilty as sin ...