Helpful Score: 1
In the quiet town of Anderson Ferry, Maryland, a young lady is brutally assaulted and murdered on her prom night. The onlookers did nothing to stop the violence or help the girl. Twenty-one years pass.
Dr. Lucy Trask is a Baltimore medical examiner. While jogging in the early morning of Monday, May Third, Lucy finds the posed body of a man so badly damaged that she does not realize that she knows him. Very soon afterward, other bodies begin to appear. All of the victims have been tortured. All of the victims are from Lucy's home town of Anderson Ferry. The killer places and poses the victims' bodies specifically when and where Lucy would be the one to discover them.
Homicide Detective J.D. Fitzpatrick has seen a lot of death, especially during his time as a soldier. But neither his time in the military, nor his time working in Narcotics could have prepared him for the tortured bodies showing up in Baltimore. J.D. and his partner, Stevie Mazzetti, instinctively know that Lucy is innocent. It does not take long to prove it either. Yet it is also obvious that the killer has personally targeted Lucy. But why? J.D. can tell that Lucy is keeping secrets about her current private life, but that should not have anything to do with her life from over twenty years ago. Back in Anderson Ferry Lucy had been a kid, while the victims would have been in high school. Lucy may have known them since the town was small, but she had never been what anyone would have called friends. So how, in the killer's mind, could Lucy be linked with any of the deceased? All J.D. is sure of is that he must convince Lucy to share her secrets with him before she becomes the killer's next victim.
***** FIVE STARS! All of the events in this story, except for the Prologue and the Epilogue, happened in less than three days time. Needless-to-say, this means that the story moved at a very brisk pace. Karen Rose has an intense writing style that attracted, yet repelled me, simultaneously. The author painted such clear and vivid pictures in my mind that I became jittery once or twice. While I read a few of the tense scenes, I actually felt as if someone had injected me with a decent dosage of caffeine. During this tale Lucy and J.D. were the main "good guy" characters and the author let me, as the reader, follow along as they collected evidence, did autopsies, and brainstormed possible scenarios. However, I was also allowed to see many events from the killer's point-of-view. In fact, as I learned more and more about why the killer was seeking revenge, I began to sympathize with him. (I honestly cannot say that I would not have done the same had I been in his shoes.) There were times when the story shifted to a private investigator, who had his own dealings with the killer. Of course, the investigator and detectives eventually merged together, but I still found this to be a stroke of genius on the author's part.
This title is the first in a new thriller/romantic suspense series featuring Baltimore homicide detectives, district attorneys and prosecutors as lead characters. If you have read any of the author's previous titles, chances are good that you will come into contact with a few familiar characters as this series progresses. But whether you are a fan of Rose's, romantic suspense, or detective thrillers, I have no doubt that you will thoroughly enjoy this intense look into the mind of a killer. Excellent! *****
Dr. Lucy Trask is a Baltimore medical examiner. While jogging in the early morning of Monday, May Third, Lucy finds the posed body of a man so badly damaged that she does not realize that she knows him. Very soon afterward, other bodies begin to appear. All of the victims have been tortured. All of the victims are from Lucy's home town of Anderson Ferry. The killer places and poses the victims' bodies specifically when and where Lucy would be the one to discover them.
Homicide Detective J.D. Fitzpatrick has seen a lot of death, especially during his time as a soldier. But neither his time in the military, nor his time working in Narcotics could have prepared him for the tortured bodies showing up in Baltimore. J.D. and his partner, Stevie Mazzetti, instinctively know that Lucy is innocent. It does not take long to prove it either. Yet it is also obvious that the killer has personally targeted Lucy. But why? J.D. can tell that Lucy is keeping secrets about her current private life, but that should not have anything to do with her life from over twenty years ago. Back in Anderson Ferry Lucy had been a kid, while the victims would have been in high school. Lucy may have known them since the town was small, but she had never been what anyone would have called friends. So how, in the killer's mind, could Lucy be linked with any of the deceased? All J.D. is sure of is that he must convince Lucy to share her secrets with him before she becomes the killer's next victim.
***** FIVE STARS! All of the events in this story, except for the Prologue and the Epilogue, happened in less than three days time. Needless-to-say, this means that the story moved at a very brisk pace. Karen Rose has an intense writing style that attracted, yet repelled me, simultaneously. The author painted such clear and vivid pictures in my mind that I became jittery once or twice. While I read a few of the tense scenes, I actually felt as if someone had injected me with a decent dosage of caffeine. During this tale Lucy and J.D. were the main "good guy" characters and the author let me, as the reader, follow along as they collected evidence, did autopsies, and brainstormed possible scenarios. However, I was also allowed to see many events from the killer's point-of-view. In fact, as I learned more and more about why the killer was seeking revenge, I began to sympathize with him. (I honestly cannot say that I would not have done the same had I been in his shoes.) There were times when the story shifted to a private investigator, who had his own dealings with the killer. Of course, the investigator and detectives eventually merged together, but I still found this to be a stroke of genius on the author's part.
This title is the first in a new thriller/romantic suspense series featuring Baltimore homicide detectives, district attorneys and prosecutors as lead characters. If you have read any of the author's previous titles, chances are good that you will come into contact with a few familiar characters as this series progresses. But whether you are a fan of Rose's, romantic suspense, or detective thrillers, I have no doubt that you will thoroughly enjoy this intense look into the mind of a killer. Excellent! *****
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