Somebody in Boston is murdering child molesters. Homicide detective D.D. Warren is working a case when she tumbles into a second case. A troubled young woman says that in just a few days, somebody will murder her. She wants Warren to handle her case.

OK, so the molester murders and the troubled young woman seem like separate cases. But crime thrillers tend to weave odd elements together, and "Catch Me" is no exception.

What sets this book (and the rest of Lisa Gardner's D.D. Warren series) apart is Warren's gender. The book leads readers deep inside the female mind. Sometimes, it's a labyrinth of angst. But at other times, Gardner gives male readers special insight into female thinking. An example comes from the troubled young woman, who at one point muses:

"Boys are encouraged to grow strong, to inspect their scrawny arms and thin chests for the first sign of muscular bulk. Girls, by the time they're eight, are already overanalyzing their waistlines, worrying about the dreaded muffin top. We have no concept of gaining muscle, just an enduring aversion to gaining fat."

Sure, Gardner takes her plot over the top. But her characters make this book good reading.

Swedes Anders Roslund and Börge Hellström turn out tales that fall under the heading of Nordic noir. Even so, much of the plot in "Cell 8" unreels in Ohio.

In fact, the book opens on Death Row in an Ohio prison. There, John Frey waits to be executed for the murder of his teenage girlfriend. Then, the plot fast-forwards six years and moves to Stockholm. There, police arrest a foreigner in an assault case. Turns out that the Stockholm suspect is Ohio's Frey.

Trouble is, a heart ailment killed Frey before he could be executed in Ohio. So how can he be alive in Sweden? Authors Roslund and Hellström bring back gruff detective Ewert Grens to unravel the mystery. "Cell 8" is a well-told tale with an ending that will sneak up and knock you flat.

But the book is also an editorial against capital punishment, long ago banned in Sweden. If Grens can catch Frey, can the Swedes in good conscience ship him back to Ohio and death row? The tone of the novel comes through when one of Grens' fellow detectives tries to explain capital punishment to his young son:

—"'Who decides that he's going to be killed? There must be someone who decides, isn't there?'

—"'A jury. And a judge. You know, in court, like you've seen on TV.'

—"'A jury?'

—"'Yes.'

—"'And a judge?'

—"'Yes.'

—"'Are they people?'

—"'Yes, they're people. Ordinary people.'

—"'Who's going to kill them, then?'

—"'They're not going to die.'

—"'But if they decide that someone's going to die, then they're killing them. And then they have to die too. And who's going to do that, Dad? I don't understand.'"

Harry Levins of Manchester retired in 2007 as senior writer of the Post-Dispatch.

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'Catch Me'

A novel by Lisa Gardner

Published by Dutton, 401 pages, $26.95

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'Cell 8'

A novel by Anders Roslund and Börge Hellström

Published by SilverOak, 370 pages, $24.95