The Barnes & Noble Review
Five years after the death of her daughter, the breakup of her marriage, and a love affair that cost her her job at the FBI, Kate Conlan has picked up the pieces of her life and established a new career in Minneapolis as a victim's advocate. Her life is stagnant but settled until a serial killer, who has been nicknamed the Cremator, makes himself known. Thus far he has left behind the mutilated and burned bodies of two women, both known prostitutes. But the third victim attracts much more attention when it appears to be the daughter of one of the city's wealthiest and most influential men: Peter Bondurant. The problem is, no one is sure the body is that of Jillian Bondurant, for while her driver's license was left at the site, the fingers on the corpse have been burned away, there are no identifying marks on the body, and the victim's head is nowhere to be found.
Adding to the mystery is Angie DiMarco, a bedraggled, homeless, and skittish young woman who witnessed the gruesome burning of the corpse. Hoping to get a description of the killer, the cops detain Angie. But the young woman is clearly scared out of her wits and offers little help. That's when Kate is assigned to the case.
Despite Kate's best efforts, Angie remains withdrawn, secretive, and uncooperative. Adding to Kate's frustration is the FBI Agent who has been brought in on the case: John Quinn, the man Kate had an affair with five years before. At first Kate considers begging off the case and having someone else work with Angie. But in addition to feeling a sense of responsibility toward the troubled girl,Katealso feels strangely drawn to her.
The investigation of the case progresses no better than Kate's attempts to get Angie to talk. Peter Bondurant is throwing his weight around, yet appears to be holding back key information. Sordid details about Jillian Bondurant's life begin to emerge, but no critical evidence can be found. The people of Minneapolis are in an uproar, demanding the killer be caught. And while the police have a bevy of potential suspects to sift through, none of them quite seem to fit.
The tension mounts when Angie suddenly disappears, the only clue a frighteningly large trail of blood. Kate is devastated and ends up at loggerheads with both her boss and the rest of the investigative team, some of whom blame her for Angie's disappearance. Adding to Kate's turmoil is her growing awareness that five years apart has done little to quell the passion between her and Quinn.
When the Cremator strikes again, leaving a woman's body burned beyond recognition inside a car, Kate fears the victim is Angie. It's not, but Kate's relief is short-lived when the body is identified as one of the other crime victims Kate had been counseling. Terrified that the Cremator chose this particular victim as a personal message, Kate grows even more concerned when a series of unsettling events make her wonder if she is being watched, or even stalked by the killer. Her instincts prove true, and though Kate does her best to protect and prepare herself, nothing can prepare her for the final shock of coming face to face with the Cremator.
Taut, terrifying and twisted, Ashes to Ashes is definitely not for the squeamish. But for readers who enjoy great storytelling, intricate plotting, and true-to-life characters, Ashes to Ashes won't disappoint. Hoag does a superb job of masking her killer, cleverly hiding her clues right out in the open, and rapidly building the tension. By the time the story escalates to its surprising and harrowing climax, readers won't be able to turn the pages fast enough.
— Beth Amos
People Magazine
One of the hottest names in the suspense game....Ashes to Ashes leaves the compeittion in the dust (Page-Turner of the Week).
Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
Hoag (A Thin Dark Line) has a way of sneaking up on the reader in superior thriller tradition, taking her time in revealing monstrous images lurking in the dark corners. The Cremator, a Minneapolis serial killer, has been torturing prostitutes before incinerating them in local parks, but no one pays much attention until it appears that the third victim may be Jillian Bondurant, a billionaire's daughter. Former FBI agent Kate Conlan, now a victim/witness advocate, is enlisted to handle a reluctant teenage witness who claims to have seen the latest torching. Kate's life becomes further complicated when ace FBI profiler John Quinn is called in by Jillian's father. Kate and John share a personal history, he being one of the reasons she left the Bureau five years ago, and they must each contend with their painful past as they work together to catch the diabolical killer who appears to be taunting them at every turn. Hoag uses crisp dialogue effectively to distinguish the many diverse characters, while Kate and John's mirror-image Machiavellian work ethics justify both their mutual attraction and aversion. Devoting equal attention to the mystery of the serial killer's identity and the romantic tension between her engaging protagonists, Hoag does service to both, scripting love scenes worthy of George Clooney and Renee Russo, the Hollywood stars she mentions as look-alikes for her principals. Granting a humanizing dignity to the victims' corpses, she neatly sidesteps the graphic crudeness of some of her competitors, while still providing enough surprise twists and stomach-turning carnage to satisfy any heebie-jeebie enthusiast.
Library Journal
FBI agent Kate Conlan's career may have gone up in smoke, sticking her with a desk job in a backwater town, but now she's tracking a serial killer who burns his victims. Following the author's five New York Times bestsellers.
Rebecca Ascher-Walsh
...Hoag holds the reins...tightly....One caveat: It's not for the squeamish.
— Entertainment Weekly
Kirkus Reviews
Hoag continues to exploit the theme of mutilated women (A Thin Dark Line) in a romance thriller about the hunt for a serial killer. Someone in Minneapolis is tying down women, then raping, torturing, and killing them. While they're still alive, the attacker sticks knives into the soles of their feet, then cuts off their nipples and aureoles. After they die, he stabs them in a ritual pattern, slices off their tattoos, and burns their bodies beyond recognition; to relive his moments of triumph, he audiotapes their screams for mercy and death. He's the "Cremator": just another "sadistic sexual serial killer" with low self-esteem and an abused childhood behind him. His first two victims are prostitutes, but when he turns his hand to Jillian Bondurant, the daughter of a billionaire, Minnesota calls in FBI agent John Quinn, world-famous expert on serial killers and related ilk. In the Twin Cities, Quinn is reunited with his ex-lover Kate Conlan, a former FBI expert in violent crime and the only woman he could ever really love. After the death of her daughter and a bitter divorce, Kate has moved to Minnesota and become a victim-and-witness advocate. In that capacity, she's assigned to watch over Angie DiMarco, a runaway teenager who spied the Cremator while she was turning a trick in the park. As lots of tawdry details are dug up about Jillian (incest, etc.), the killer tortures and murders another woman, kills a small dog (in romance, always a sign of irredeemable evil), then begins to plot against Kate herself. Hoag's strong dose of S&M resolves in fire, blood, stabbings, and Kate spread-eagled on a table. Though Hoag grows more and more adept at juggling a complex plot, her sortof violent entertainment isn't for everyone.
From the Publisher
"Without a doubt...Tami Hoag is one of the most intense suspense writers around."—Chicago Tribune
"[Tami Hoag] demonstrates just why she has become one of the hottest names in the suspense game....Bottom line: Leaves competition in the dust."—People
"[A] detail-packed thriller...The Silence of the Lambs comes to mind more than once."—Entertainment Weekly
"Tami Hoag is the queen of the crime story."—New York Post
"You'll want to lock the doors while you're reading."—Star Tribune, Minneapolis
"An up-all-night read."—Detroit News
