Need help finding a book

[Catch22Dem]

This is going to be really hard, but perhaps one of you might know the book I'm looking for.

The publication date has to be before 1997 because I read it in 1996. It's about a serial murderer in New Orleans who is killing homosexual men and cutting out their hearts. He places a little lace doily where the heart was. The FBI brings in one of their girls who can do like parapsychology or whatever you call it. She can see things by being at the crime scene. Maybe if I could figure out what that is called, it would help me find the book.

Any help would be appreciated.

[BrotherBuzz]

1. New Orleans requiem?

New Orleans requiem
by
Donaldson, D. J.
Other Titles
While at a forensic convention, Chief Medical Examiner Broussard and psychological-profile expert Franklin start investigating a series of murders committed by someone who seems to have a grudge against Broussard
Publishing Information:
New York, St. Martin's, 1994. 227p.
Subject Headings:
Mystery stories, American
Serial murders -- New Orleans, Louisiana
Coroners -- New Orleans, Louisiana
Women psychologist-detectives -- New Orleans, Louisiana
Broussard, Andy
Franklyn, Kit
French Quarter, New Orleans, Louisiana

Series Name:
Andy Broussard and Kit Franklyn mysteries

Review:
Booklist Review: With three novels to his credit in the Andy Broussard-Kit Franklin series, Donaldson has established himself as a master of the Gothic mystery. His New Orleans-set novels, including "No Mardi Gras for the Dead" (1992), draw brilliantly on the Crescent City's mixed heritage: part decadence, part noir, part voodoo-inspired weirdness. This time, though, he leaves much of that tradition behind; there are no werewolves, no hungry alligators, no madpeople in the cellar wreaking havoc. There is a murderer, of course, and a nasty one, at that, but it's all rather traditional fare. Chief Medical Examiner Broussard and psychological-profile expert Franklin are caught up in their respective roles at the American Academy of Forensic Sciences annual convention when the killings start. Matters turn personal when the culprit's m.o. suggests advanced knowledge of forensics and a grudge against Broussard. There's nothing wrong with this tale: Broussard remains an ingratiatingly crotchety hero, the whodunit angle is satisfactorily developed, and the French Quarter ambience is piquant as always. Still, fans of the series will feel a bit let down, as if they'd ordered gumbo and been served chicken soup instead. ((Reviewed Mar. 15, 1994)) -- Bill Ott
School Library Journal Review: YA-A fast-paced novel featuring the detective team of Andy Broussard, New Orleans Chief Medical Examiner, and Kit Franklyn, a criminal psychologist. At a series of murder scenes, the victims are found to be missing an eyelid, a copy of a newspaper is present, and the Scrabble tiles KOJE are on the bodies. As the details begin to unfold, the clues point to a killer with a knowledge of forensics. This presents Andy and Kit with several hundred suspects, since the annual convention of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences is being held in the Big Easy. Once the sleuths think they have pieced together the puzzle, it becomes a race against time to arrest the culprit before he strikes again. The tension will keep even the most reluctant YA readers turning the pages until the surprising conclusion is reached.-Roberta Lisker, W.T. Woodson High School, Fairfax, VA
Publishers Weekly Review: Lots of Louisiana color, pinpoint plotting and two highly likable characters who chase a cunning killer with a taste for games distinguish the latest case (after No Mardi Gras for the Dead ) for New Orleans Medical Examiner Andy Broussard and psychologist Kit Franklyn. During a forensic science convention in the Crescent City, accruing corpses feature clean cuts to the heart and missing eyelids; Scrabble tiles are found near each body. The extensive plotting ranges from the macabre details of the killings to the actions of a lithe, wise stripper and even a clue cut from a Where's Waldo book. Donaldson sets his sleuths on far-ranging leads, yet wastes little motion as he produces a smart, convincing solution that encompasses all the densely laid clues. There's plenty of atmosphere too. While the French Quarter offers its alluring blend of the historical and the colorfully lewd, Broussard wraps his sizable chops around seafood po' boy sandwiches, and Kit deals with assorted threats, desired and not, to her single life. (Apr.)

[Catch22Dem]

2. Wow, that's close

I distinctly remember that the victims were homosexuals who had their hearts cut out and replaced with a doily.

The female character wasn't a profiler but like one of those people who has visions or whatever. I'd love to find this damn book again.

Thanks for helping, I think you've got me going in the right direction.

[BrotherBuzz]

3. Exquisite corpse

Here's another but I still don't find FBI or lace doiles mentioned...Sorry...

Exquisite corpse
by
Brite, Poppy Z.
Other Titles, Web Sites

Escaping from prison and joining forces with a playboy murderer, serial killer Andrew Compton targets a young runaway boy as an ideal victim in his quest to perfect the art of creative killing

240 Pages.
New York, Simon & Schuster, 1996. Subject Headings:
Psychological fiction
Horror stories, American
Murderers -- Psychology
Serial murderers -- New Orleans, Louisiana
Necrophilia
Obsession in men
Gay couples -- New Orleans, Louisiana
Cannibalism
Gay men -- New Orleans, Louisiana
Gay murderers -- New Orleans, Louisiana
British in New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans, Louisiana

Review:
Publishers Weekly Review: Blood-soaked sheets, cannibalism, rotting, half-dissected corpses: this gruesome psychological horror novel has all the grue a reader might--or might not--want. Brite (Drawing Blood, 1993), the reigning queen of Generation-X splatterpunks, pulls out the stops in this ghastly tale of two serial killers who find true love over the body of a murdered and mutilated boy in the historic French Quarter of New Orleans. Londoner Andrew Compton, imprisoned for the necrophiliac slayings of 23 young men, escapes from prison by (rather unbelievably) faking his own death and killing the coroners gathered to autopsy his body. Fleeing to Louisiana, he hooks up with Jay Byrne, slacker scion of a wealthy old family, a man whose murders are even more fiendish than Compton's own. Brite is a highly competent stylist with a knack for depicting convincing, if monstrous, characters. Her plot development rests too heavily on coincidence, however, and on an excess of details drawn from the life of real-world serial killer and cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer. Though Brite shifts point of view throughout, she always returns to Compton's first person. This technique gives the narrative rhythm and emotional force but also seems aimed toward intimating the reader in Compton's acts of dehumanization ("the aesthetics of dismemberment") and depravity. And so what Brite really presents here is, ultimately, yet another crimson leaf in the literature of the pornography of violence. (Aug.)
Library Journal Review: Acclaimed horror writer Brite (Drawing Blood, LJ 10/1/93) has never been one to mince words, but even the most hardened among us will cringe when reading this latest, which easily surpasses Brett Easton Ellis's American Psycho on the gore-o-meter. English serial killer Andrew Compton, who killed 23 boys before being caught, escapes from prison and makes his way to Louisiana, where he inadvertently teams up with another fellow who shares his appetite for dismemberment and necrophilia. Young Tran, a gay Louisiana teen who is evicted by his Vietnamese father, foolishly proffers himself to our vicious pair. Tran's only hope for surviving the encounter with all limbs intact is his ex-lover Luke, a tough but AIDS-weakened writer who rants about heterosexual America on a pirate radio station, using the name "Lush Rimbaugh." All in all, Exquisite Corpse is a rub-it-in-your face novel that is all the more terrifying because of its author's razor-sharp prose. Purchase wherever Brite has a following.--Mark Annichiarico, "Library Journal"

[Catch22Dem]

4. No, this one seems to focus on the killer

In my book, you don't find out anything about the killer until the very end. I picked up Post Mortem today and I'm almost finished with The Da Vinci Code. Great book.

Thanks again for the help.

[Robb]

5. "Pure Instinct"?

Published 1996?

http://www.zackcompany.com/titles/pureinstinct.htm

[Catch22Dem]

6. Holy Crap, you did it?

How the hell? I've been trying for about an hour...LOL

I appreciate it. Thanks also to BrotherBuzz for all the help. I read this when I was in Jordan. It's more the kind of book my wife would really like. I'll have to order it. Thanks again.

[Robb]

7. I use a crystal ball

...and frog innards. ;)

I figured you'd been googling, so I changed some of your search terms, used "gay" instead of "homosexual", left out "doily", used "serial killer" instead of "serial murderer", etc.

Happy re-reading! :)

[Catch22Dem]

8. Cool

And I thought I was the google master :)

Actually, it appears it was a crocheted "Queen of Hearts" playing card, so I was a little off base there. It was a good book. Well, it was a mindless read, but I need those from time to time.