St. Martin's Paperbacks“The Killing Lessons” by Saul Black The story starts in the fictional town of Ellinson, Colo., when two scummy men step through the unlocked doors of Rowena Cooper’s home where she lives with her 13-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter. There, the slaughter begins in Saul Black’s first novel featuring his tarnished heroine: San Francisco detective Valerie Hart. The girl escapes and hides with a reclusive writer in a remote mountain cabin.