A killer who might be obsessed with Jack the Ripper - and who might be a woman - terrorizes Washington, D.C., in Stacy Green's new novel, 'Killing Jane.” Green, who lives in Marion, introduces investigator Erin Prince, a woman trying to prove herself as a cop in a town where everyone knows she comes from great wealth and privilege. Helping her chase down the killer is her new partner, Todd Beckett, a character who will be familiar to readers of Green's previous series featuring Lucy Kendall.

Green's set up is a good one. Prince is a woman with a difficult past trying to make her mark as a new homicide detective. The case she catches stirs up her past in more ways than one, and she must overcome her own emotions in order to make any headway in the investigation. She makes mistakes, loses her cool, and sometimes believes the worst about her partner, but she never loses her determination to set things right. Prince is easy to root for and is the kind of character upon which a series can be successfully built.

The plot of the novel is somewhat less successful, particularly in the area of police procedure. Prince and Beckett have a prime suspect they leave in the wind for a troubling length of time, even after they know where to find the person in question. The book bogs down for long stretches as Prince and Beckett are at loose ends and the tension doesn't ratchet up.

Green sometimes has a tendency to write overly florid passages. Here, for example, Prince considers a revelation from her partner:

'His words struck Erin like a fist digging into her solar plexus. In the few days they worked together, she quickly learned to count on Beckett's quiet confidence. She blinked as cold rain sheeted from the swollen sky. Beckett's confession seeped into her bones and festered like a forgotten piece of food stuck in the back of the refrigerator. Her wet lips worked to say something inspiring, but everything sounded desperate and stale.”

Nevertheless, if Green can tighten up the prose and speed up the action, she may earn a sizable following for the ongoing adventures of Erin Prince.