Garden of Evil is the sixth book, in the Britt Montero series, and it begins with Buchanan’s usual satisfying formula - Britt is contacted by an aging beauty queen who believes her life is in danger, while up near Florida’s Panhandle a possible female serial killer is working her way downstate, leaving a wake of dead males with their pants down and a red lipstick imprint on their cheeks. As The Kiss-Me Killer moves South, so does Buchanan’s formula, to the point where the storyline becomes quite singular, ending with a nihilistic note that goes far beyond the requisite dose of cynicism that makes these novels so realistic.