Lindsay, Cindy, Claire, and Jill are back for the second outing as the Women's Murder Club, and this time the murderer is going to hit them right at home.

Lindsay has recovered from the shock of losing her love at the end of the previous book and finds herself in a new role. She is now the Lieutenant in charge of Homicide, thanks to the prestige of bringing an end to the bride and groom murderer. Her next nemesis might even be considered even more evil.

His work starts on the grounds of a local church, where a youth choir group is just getting out of practice. As they start heading about their business, a rain of fire falls down upon them as a lone gunman seemed to want to instill fear with the randomness of the shots. In fact, only one of the young people falls victim, as an 11-year-old girl is killed. Few people expect it to be more than random violence until a pattern starts to form.

A short time earlier, an African American woman hung herself in her home. She was the widow of a former police officer of the San Francisco police department, as was the young girl's uncle. To tighten the connections between the two incidents, the image of a chimera is found in evidence in both locations. One was on the getaway van at the church and the other was drawn in chalk. And so starts the hunt for Chimera, the serial killers nom de guerre.

As more victims fall to the city's newest monster, it quickly becomes clear that he is tied to the dark history of the police department, in particular, that of a local cop who killed a young man with questionable ties to drugs 20 years previously.

History also starts to play a role in Lindsay's personal life, when her father pops up out of the blue after being missing since she was 13 years old. It is a tough reunion since she felt betrayed and abandoned. Now, he has hopes of rebuilding their relationship. The fact that he was also a former police officer with a dark history doesn't help things out, particularly with all of Chimera's victims popping up dead all over the place.

The real question about the case that is preventing Lindsay, her team from Homicide, and the members of the club from figuring it out is some confusion about whether or not the murders are racially connected. All of the victims are African Americans, but the connections start being made. Before that can be done, though, not before Claire is shot at, Cindy falls in love, Jill has some difficulties with her pregnancy, and Lindsay goes head-to-head with Chimera himself.

This was a nice sequel to the previous book, 1st to Die. I did think that the story was less of a group tale since it focused a lot more on Lindsay herself. The other ladies had roles to play, but they were definitely more of a supporting cast in this volume. I did really enjoy this book, all the same.