Every Wickedness (2001)

Cathy Vasas-Brown's first novel sets Lieutenant Jim Kearns of the San Francisco police after the Spiderman, a killer of young women who carves the Chi Rho into his victims' wrists, while Beth Wells, roommate of the fourth victim, starts to receive threatening letters. Anonymous presents have meanwhile been arriving at Nora Prescott's mansion on Russian Hill. (Open Library)

Watches

Cartier (unidentified model): Nora puzzles over the parcels she is sent: a dime-store manicure set, a Delft urn, an Andrew Lloyd Webber CD, all a far cry from the Cartier watch, which she decides is a keeper. Kearns notices a wristwatch too big for her pushed up her sleeve, works out that the gifts come from her son and makes her hand every one over, the Cartier last. His inspector then matches it to a victim: the watch was Lydia Price's. The maker is named; the model is not.

Source text: The Andrew Lloyd Webber CD might be considered romantic to some, but it was a far cry from the Cartier watch. The sender, be it Phillip or someone else, certainly had eclectic taste. (Cathy Vasas-Brown, Every Wickedness, scan cataloged as Doubleday Canada, 2001, p. 49; the ill-fitting watch is noticed on pp. 200 and 202, surrendered on p. 218 and traced to Lydia Price on p. 255; Internet Archive scan OCR)