Blood Rose — Margie Orford

Walvis Bay is a depressed and isolated port on the edge of the Namib Desert. Corrupt and claustrophobic, its shifting population consists of transients and vagabonds--people with no future and no past. When it seems that a methodical serial killer may be working undetected in this pit of darkness and desperation, police profiler Dr. Clare Hart is brought in to investigate. Tangled up in her own doomed love affair, Clare is happy for the distraction--until it becomes clear that it is really her life at stake.