Suspense with a little extra

Finished July 2
The Murder Notebook by Jonathan Santlofer
This suspense novel features detectives from the NYPD, mainly Nate Rodriguez a sketch artist with the police who calls on his own intuition and the Santera religion of his grandmother for assistance. He had training at Quantico with the FBI and is a freelance at the NYPD, not tied to any department. His significant other is also a police officer, Terri Russo, running a task force in Homicide. They still have their own apartments, and their relationship is not generally known in the department.
When the novel starts, Nate is working on identification of a murder victim using the victim's skull as a starting point. He is coopted into Russo's task force who is trying to solve the murder of a college student. Nate works with the victim's girlfriend to provide the first significant lead. When another student is killed, Nate is also drawn into that investigation, making comparisons between the two. The next bodies that show up are the killers bodies, and Nate is convinced there is something bigger going on.
Santlofer uses drawing throughout the book to add to the story, an interesting touch. He also provides a useful bibliography at the back of the book regarding the issues contained therein.
I really liked the Nate character and how he is still struggling with his issues and his identity.
The plot was engrossing and scary, and I was gripped throughout.