Certain Prey — John Sandford

Clara Rinker is a southerner, trim, pleasant, attractive -- and the best hit woman in the business. She isn't showy, not like one of those movie killers; she just goes quietly about her business, collects her money, and goes home.

It's when she's hired for a job in Minnesota that things become complicated for her. A defense attorney wants a rival eliminated, and that's fine. But then a witness survives, the attorney starts acting weird, this big cop Davenport gets on her case, and loose ends begin popping up faster than a sweater unraveling. Clara hates loose ends, and knows of only one way to deal with them: You start cutting them off, one after another, until they're all gone.

Lucas thinks the case is worrisome enough, but he has no idea of the toll it is about to take on him. For of the many criminals he has hunted during his life, none has been as efficient or as ferociously intelligent as the one who is about to start hunting him -- and none knows so well what his weak spots are... and how to penetrate them.