Except for her name-Jacqueline Daniels (and, yes, she's known by her colleagues at the Chicago Police Department and by her friends as "Jack Daniels")-there's not an original trope in this competent, fast-paced thriller by newcomer Konrath. A lieutenant investigating a particularly gruesome series of homicides, Daniels is like every other hard-boiled fictional cop-obsessed with work, afraid to commit emotionally and overcaffeinated. The other characters also follow formula: her partner is an overweight glutton with a heart of gold; her boss is tough but fair; the federal agents assigned to help her are territorial, superior and ineffectual. And the criminal himself, a serial killer who calls himself the "Gingerbread Man," only differs from others of his ilk in his methodology, not his psychology. He tortures and kills attractive young women, leaving their mutilated bodies in public places. Konrath, who has "performed improvisational comedy" according to his bio, likes to toss off one-liners, and while they're occasionally clever, they lend a jokey tone that jars with the seriousness of the almost gratuitously horrific crimes. Reading like an ill-conceived cross between Carl Hiaasen and Thomas Harris, this cliché-ridden first novel should find a wide audience among less discriminating suspense fans.