While the title implies some pretty gritty stuff, it turns out this is more of a suspenseful romance novel than a grim murder mystery. Although the heroine is being hunted by while hunting for a serial killer, there aren't tremendously gruesome and gratuituous descriptions of the killings which is a relief.
The plot is moved along primarily through the use of dialogue which makes for fast and easy reading. And while there aren't a whole lot of surprises in here (I mean does Mel Gibson or Bruce Willis ever actually die in their movies?), the ending was a nice little twist and Johansen does a good job of defining characters deftly with minimum words.
Not a deep book by any means, but a decent and quick read.