"The Four-Nine Profile," by Richard Helms, in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, March/April 2024.
This is the eleventh appearance in this blog by Richard Helms.
Write what you know; so the experts tell us. Helms is following that advice here. He used to be a forensic psychologist, like his protagonist.
Helms makes an interesting choice for opening the story: Nathan Lake is interviewing a man who has pled guilty to sexual assault but denies he has done it. This turns out to be unrelated to the main plot, but we learn a lot about Lake's character, job and methods. And the story does circle back to one part of that interview.
But after we see Lake in his milieu he is rudely forced out of it. A serial rapist has turned to murder and the police chief wants him to analyze the unknown assailant before he strikes again. Lake protests that he has no training as a profiler, could even lose his license for trying, but he is left with no choice. Adding to the pressure, he is forced to work with a cop he doesn't trust.
A nice and suspenseful procedural.
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