WHAT'S THE PERFECT KILLING FIELD FOR A MURDERER? A place where he (or maybe she) can learn your secrets from your own mouth and then make friends over coffee. A supposedly "safe" place where anonymity is the norm. The horror who calls himself The Axeman has figured it out and claimed his territory-he's cherry-picking his murder victims in the 12-Step programs of New Orleans. And he's had the gall to name himself after a historical serial killer. He just needs to go down, and fast, because this is New Aw'lins, dawlin'-half the town is either alcoholic or co-dependent! Who better to take him out than tall, funny, social-misfit Skip Langdon, now a homicide detective on the Axeman team, a gig that takes her into the 12-Step groups to meet the suspects (giving the author a chance for gentle satire). As Skip threads her fascinated way from one self-help group to another, she finds she has more in common with the twelve-steppers than just the murder-her mother, for one thing, whom she encounters at Overeaters Anonymous! And she knows what they do not: