Theresa Monsour's first novel “Clean Cut” is essentially about two detectives trailing a serial killer who likes to cut up prostitutes - and that's really as complex as it gets. It’s all a tad formulaic.

A serial killer offing good-hearted prostitutes is pursued by the attractive female detective/older, cynical male counterpart. It has all been done so often that most crime authors steer well clear of it.

The heroine, Paris Murphy, is thin (yet buxom), intelligent, feminine, sexy, etc, etc, but also tough as nails when she needs to be. She lives on a quirky houseboat and cooks and runs in her spare time. She is separated from her handsome doctor husband, with whom she has an on-again-off-again relationship, and barely resisting the charms of a gorgeous colleague.

Her partner, Gabe Nash, is streetwise, close to retirement, fat and smokes like a chimney.

The villain, plastic surgeon Dr. A. Romann Michaels, is rich, well-connected, blond and movie-star handsome – who would ever suspect him? Each of his past victims has been prostitutes, all with long flowing hair, and he cuts a hank from each as his trophy. Guess who’s next on his list?

The lack of originality is further made evident by the presence of at least three too many endings. The villain pops back up so many times when supposed to be dead/long gone to have a go at Paris that the story starts to rival the worst genre slasher movie.

What does work in the book's favour is that Monsour is obviously a good writer. The dialogue is believable, the characters (while cliched) are well-drawn, and the pace rarely flags. But she needs to come up with a plot that doesn't play out like a comfortable join-the-dots puzzle. And, most importantly, she needs to come up with a few ideas that haven't been done better by a plethora of writers before her. ( )

Paris Murphy, half-Irish, half-Lebanese, is extremely good at her job, though far less successful in her private life, which is a mess: she's got an on/off marriage to an ER doctor, a looming affair with a colleague in the forensic department and a mother who always calls at the worst possible moment. Tracking down killers is a far more attractive proposition than tidying up her own affairs and her latest investigation is gripping. The murder of a prostitute in St Paul's is the latest in a series of killings, and the police are sure they know who they are after - a successful plastic surgeon, scion of a powerful local family - and it is up to Paris and her partner, Gabe, to prove their case. But hard evidence is hard to come by, until Paris herself attracts the killer's attention . ( )