It's summer and Duncan is spending all his time at his new job at the subway's lost and found, collecting lost items and returning them to their owners who pick them up. It's not the most exciting job to be sitting around in a windowless concrete hole, so Duncan spends his time inspecting the  lost items and hoping that owners won't pick them up so he can keep them.

All is humdrum until he discovers a small leather booklet -- some kind of journal or collection of personal notes. In it are notes on experiments, not the kind of experiments done in schools or laboratories, but disturbing experiment done on animals, such as the time is takes to drown mice in different liquids like windex and gasoline. Taped into the note book are newspaper clippings about gory animal killings and buildings being burned down. As Duncan reads on, he realizes this notebook belongs to someone who is twisted and dangerous. Further into the book he finds detailed descriptions of several women: what they look like, when they get on and off the subway, where they sit. It appears that the owner of this booklet is stalking these people and Duncan may be the only one who knows it. He finally decides he has to find a way to warn them -- and then a man shows up at the lost and found to claim the notebook.

This is an older title, but I'd thought I'd include it as a post anyway, since it's hard to find a good  mystery these days that follows the more traditional "whodunnit" formula and isn't infiltrated with paranormal creatures or romance (there's only a hint of it in this book). It definitely stands the test of time (especially since there's no brand or celebrity name dropping). I like the build up of suspense as Duncan reads more and more of the notebook and I think his tracking of the potential victims and fear of the killer is portrayed pretty realistically. I'd love to find a couple more mysteries like this one, with the same excitement and tension.