THE JIGSAW MAN, the opening installment in Nadine Matheson’s Inspector Anjelica Henley series, was a superior thriller and a serial killer novel that would make readers of Thomas Harris shiver. Her follow-up, THE BINDING ROOM, is an even more complex story in which two distinct and different themes are running through a mystery that turns into a potential serial murder investigation.

The action opens with a chilling scene in which a man and a woman seem to be struggling with someone they are attempting to tie down and appear to be torturing. At one point, one of them states: “I told you that he had the devil inside of him.” This grisly sequence will play a big role throughout the case that Henley and her team will soon be working on --- a case unlike any they have ever been a part of before.

"Nadine Matheson takes on race, religion, hypocrisy, politics and the balance of all within the modern-day police department in such an effortless and compelling manner."

Henley is still in therapy from the aftermath of THE JIGSAW MAN and the trauma --- both physical and mental --- caused by serial killer Peter Olivier. The PTSD is so bad that she almost doubts that he’s dead. But Henley receives a much-needed distraction when she and her colleagues are called to the Church of Annan the Prophet. The cleaning lady found the body of Pastor Caleb Silas Annan lying beneath the altar. He had been stabbed over 40 times.

In an upstairs room, the police find a young man tortured and tied to a bed. Amazingly he is somehow still clinging to life and is taken to the hospital, where he remains both anonymous and comatose. Henley and her squad now need to figure out if there is a connection between him and the deceased preacher. When Henley and her partner, Salim Ramouter, inform the pastor’s wife of his death, they are surprised by how little emotion she shows. All she seems to care about is getting his jewelry back and having a press conference to alert their community about his passing.

When the medical examiner collects the personal effects from Pastor Annan, she finds that his wedding ring is missing. Why would someone take a wedding ring yet leave a $5,000 watch on his wrist? It clearly shows a more personal touch and a certain amount of hatred that the killer felt towards the victim.

A young woman named Amy Whittaker informs the police that the man found in the church was her brother, Brandon. He had been struggling with anxiety and depression, but their extremely religious parents felt that he was misdiagnosed and sought out alternative treatments through the church --- radical ones like exorcism.

Henley and her team get word of a second potential victim. Alyssa Hadlow is found in her apartment with religious paraphernalia, such as the Bible and holy water, surrounding her. She has been dead for several weeks, but the scene is eerily similar to Brandon’s. The tension mounts even further when a third body is discovered in the same ritualistic style as Brandon and Alyssa.

THE BINDING ROOM is a true page-turner that is not afraid to “go there,” and the finale will attempt to tie up all of these seemingly unrelated mysteries --- but at a price. Nadine Matheson takes on race, religion, hypocrisy, politics and the balance of all within the modern-day police department in such an effortless and compelling manner. This is another top-notch read in what is proving to be a stellar series by an author to watch out for.