MATCH PLAY by D MICHAEL POPPE

Match Play is a debut novel by an artist who is, I believe, a new talent to watch.  Not for the faint-hearted, this novel features an obsessive/compulsive killer who chooses his victims at random, making him that much more difficult to catch.  

The only thing tying his victims and their locations across the U.S. together is the LPGA Tour.  The women he selects are golfers but not the recognizable professional golfers on the tour.  Necessarily, they must live alone.   

The killer has a well-thought-out plan which involves the golf game of match play.  You don't need to know much about golf to understand what he's doing since you'll catch on as he goes along.  It is however creepy enough to make you suspicious of strangers for quite some time. 
I should warn you that mutilation of the victims is a vitally important part of this madman's m.o.

When he learns which FBI agent is leading the investigative team, he turns his activities personal, as in a match play game between the two of them.  The agent, Lou Schein, is frustrated in his attempts to catch the villain before he can kill again.  The reader is head of him all the way and the back story of who the killer is and why he became the man he is makes this an unusual and engrossing novel.

I do hope Poppe will continue to write fiction.  He's trying this later in life than most writers but he has demonstrated an ability to write a compelling plot with well-drawn characters.   

Recommended
Source:  Partners in Crime Book Tours