Susan Streib
Book Reviewer for Sisters in Crime

Gena Hollender is a psychologist with a private practice in New York.  She is currently deep into renovations of her inherited brownstone which includes a green house for her exotic plants.  In her recent past she was a criminal profiler for the FBI.

Victor Trikonis is the suspected serial killer.  He, too, is a brilliant psychologist, and a master manipulator.  He is the one that got away from Gena years ago, named but never captured.  Or, perhaps, it was Gena that got away from him.  Victor's primary interest is discovering the process the mind goes through when a free person is incarcerated.  To this end, he formed a control group of 6 young women:  one dies naturally, 1 escapes his clutches, and 4, he decided, would live, at least temporarily.  Then he fixates on the one who got away.  His plan is to punish her for escaping, then execute her.

Marcus Valenzuela is Gena's former colleague, now functioning as a detective, who calls urgently for Gena, to meet in Portland, Maine.

At Monhegan Island, ME, a fisherman hauls in his lobster traps and discovers a young woman, grotesquely bent to fit inside one of those traps.  The victim carried the signature method of a Victor Trikonis kill.

Gena arrives in Portland to find most of the original serial killer task force reunited, and no one officially acknowledges summoning them collectively.

This is just the beginning of a well constructed plot built twist upon twist of seemingly  unrelated episodes.  The fisherman who found the first body disappears.  Gena is attacked in the park after she hears gun shots.  A U.S. Senator's son is killed.  A photojournalist does a study of homeless people.  An old flame is rekindled between Gena and her former boss, Terrence Zemecke, now an attorney for the Office of the General Counsel, FBI.  The county sheriff is an ex-Texas Ranger.  Intriguing, yes, and the body count continues to climb.

This is a page turner thriller, but do not turn those pages too fast.  BLACKWATER TANGO is a full flavored book, that needs slow-going to savor the delicious locations in Maine, the misty February weather, and the fine detail of the relationships.  I could feel the damp fog in my face.  The characters are as well drawn and as interesting as their names suggest, with flaws and passions and features that make them fully three dimensional as well as individual.

I  learned a little bit more about psychology by reading this book, and a little bit more about English poetry, and a smidgen about scuba diving off the coast of Maine in mid-winter.

This book was immensely enjoyable, and I look forward to a second of what I hope will be a series.  Not only do I suspect Lisa Polisar will come up with another superb plot, but I want to know what happens, or does not happen, between Gena and the cute contractor completing the brownstone's renovations, or between Gena and the clearly smitten detective Marcus Valenzuela.  This may be Lisa Polisar's first full length novel, but she is no novice story teller!  Good job, Lisa!