Sophie Anderson is not your average FBI agent. For starters she comes from Australia, being eligible for the FBI by virtue of an American father. And although she is a more than capable profiler she has an added gift - or curse - that she alternately embraces and shuns. This gift is an ability to call on visions and dreams of murders that have either just happened or are about to happen. It's an ability that frightens and repulses her due to the vividness of the visions, almost as if she is the victim or murderer herself. If she can control these episodes and call on them at will, they could play an important role in solving her investigations.

When The Murderer's Club opens Sophie is still deeply affected by the events of a case she worked on 6 months earlier (Body Count) and is suffering from insomnia, spending long sessions on the shooting range and is seeing a shrink to deal with the problem. So she is looking forward to the few days holiday she has organised in Tucson, Arizona where she will be staying with homicide detective Darren Carter whom she met on that same traumatic case.

No sooner does she touch down in Arizona when a body is discovered and Carter, who is still on duty, is called out to the crime scene, dragging Sophie out with him. The body is that of a black man who has been strangled to death and left, the body position seemingly staged, on the grounds of a university campus. An unusual feature of this particular case is that the dead man has had a love heart painted on his chest.

Being the dedicated profiler that she is, Sophie can't help but become involved and then, when a second and third murder are linked back to the initial case, the FBI are officially called in to take over the case putting Sophie, as the agent already on the scene, officially on the job. Holidays are over and she and Carter begin working what looks to be a serial killer case together.

But what we know is that there is a group of 4 killers who are all connected via a secure chat room and while they initially sound and talk like regular chat room users, it becomes clear that they're all sick individuals. The discussions about their appetite for their next kill, who wants to be next and the anticipation with which they view their next victim is pretty full on.

Through their conversation we gather that they have a captive group of victims who they can all view thanks to a web-cam set up. The 4 killers then discuss who the next victim is going to be and who gets to be the "lucky" club member to do the killing. It sets a quietly horrifying tone as they bicker amongst themselves on-line, telling ghoulish jokes and posting smiley emoticons in their chat room conversation, all the while calmly contemplating the fate of those before them.

This is an all-out race against time, hindered by the fact that Sophie and Darren aren't looking for a single serial killer but a team. Their task is to get to them before the Murderer's Club kills all of their victims and then disbands.

The Murderer's Club is not what you would call a fast-paced thriller, taking the form of an intense drama that unfolds with steady precision as Sophie and Darren slowly gather their data. The fact that the bodies are appearing every week heightens the drama considerably and, thanks to regular crosses back to the chat room, we know for sure that the murderers have only just begun.

There is an underlying sexual tension that creeps into the story Between Sophie and Darren from a very early stage in the story. It's an unnecessary distraction that becomes an ever-present feature of their work together no matter how professional the two act together. What we gain from this tension is further development of the confusion and intensity of Sophie's feelings that has been extended from the first book of the series.

This leads us back to her special gift which Darren tries to encourage her to embrace. While she attempts to actively engage the visions in an effort to give her an edge in the investigation, she is still unable to allow herself to fully accept her talent. As in Body Count it doesn't really play a significant part in the investigation process because the visions are still too gruesome for her to handle. One feels this aspect of Sophie Anderson is still to be fully played out.

There are many aspects to this book that makes it stand out from other psychological thrillers, not the least being the unusual nature of the killers. The Murderer's Club is a strong follow up to P.D. Martin's first novel and Sophie Anderson continues to grow into a fascinating, yet troubled, protagonist.