The Face of Deception by Iris Johansen

An unidentified skull...

A trail of terrifying secrets...

And a woman whose talented hands could reveal the shocking truth...

As a forensic sculptor, Eve Duncan helps identify the dead from their skulls. Her own daughter murdered and her body never found, the job is Eve's way of coming to terms with her personal nightmare. But more terror lies ahead when she accepts work from billionaire John Logan.

Beneath her gifted hands a face emerges from the skull he has given her to reconstruct—a face no one was ever meant to see. Now Eve is trapped in a frightening web of murder and deceit. Powerful enemies are determined to cover up the truth, and they will make certain that truth goes to the grave...even if Eve gets buried with it.

I can't remember exactly how I heard about the Eve Duncan series, but I added it to my list and gave the first book a whirl. Aside from a bit of a dodgy Kindle copy (occasionally I lost the end of a sentence? Luckily it didn't detract from the story as a whole), I am hooked enough to give the next in the series a read. It feels a little like it might follow the Eve Dallas "cop meets, then marries wealthy guy" theme, but we'll see how that pans out. I'm also nervous about the whole "getting advice from her missing/dead daughter" in her dreams thing ... but for now I can look past it ;)

Also, so far I like the character of Eve less than Diane Fallon, but here is hoping she doesn't spend every story getting attacked for her role in crime-solving (I'm not betting on it tho).

* These books are part of the Eve Duncan series: The Face Of Deception (1998), The Killing Game (1999), The Search (2000), Body of Lies (2002), Dead Aim (2002), Blind Alley (2004), Countdown (2005), Stalemate (2006), Quicksand (2008), Blood Game (2009), Eight Days To Live (2010), Chasing The Night (2010), Sleep No More (2012), Taking Eve (2013), Hunting Eve (2013), Silencing Eve (2013)