Cirrus@Austlit

'Not only are P.D. Martin's initials the same as those of a certain eminent English crime writer but Body Count's heroine and plot, even the genre-specific title and cover design, bring forth a host of associations with the work of other writers in a well-populated sub-category of crime fiction. According to the publicity for Body Count, this debut novel is written "in the tradition of Patricia Cornwell and Nicci French", which no doubt serves as a further prompt to pattern recognition.

'Martin's heroine, Sophie Anderson, is an Australian-born FBI profiler attached to the Behavioural Science Unit in Washington DC, where she becomes involved in the case of a serial killer who murders two women and clearly has no intention of stopping there.' Simon Caterson, The Age, 11.6.2005.