The Blurb:
“A law student is raped and tortured in her own New York apartment by a masked man. Still in emotional hell 12 years later with her looks and name disguised so the perpetrator – whoever he is – cannot track her down, she has become one of the state prosecutors in Florida and faces in court a psycho arrested for the most gruesome serial killings of women. Immediately she recognises his voice. The plot storms along from peaks of terror to resoluteness to anguished nightmare, with just enough love interest to give moments of respite from the macabre. A dream of a debut thriller.”
What I thought:
Absolutely brilliant! This is the first book by this author that I have read and I plan on tracking down her others now. A gritty, no holds barred book that grabs you from the off and makes you question what you think you know.
The story starts with Chloe, a young law student from New York who is brutally raped in by someone who is waiting for her in her appartment when she gets home from a night out right before she is about to take the Bar exam. The rape scene is not for the feint of heart, not because it goes into too much detail about the physical act but because it is played out before the readers eyes with breath-holding tension. From the word go we have our bad guy, the evil person who has destroyed the life of an innocent young girl in terrifying detail and from that point on we want him caught – we want to see him get his just deserts!
Fast forward 12 years and Chloe (or CJ as she is now known) is now living in Florida as a highly successful Prosecutor and she is about to be handed the case that could send her career into orbit. “Cupid” has been terrorising the women of Florida for the last 4 years (with his victims always suffering the most appalling fate) and the police have just caught him! Or have they? I don’t want to give too much away as it’s far better to read the book yourself, but it’s sufficient to say that naturally the story won’t be as clear cut as Chloe had hoped when she recognises the voice “Cupid” and she has a tough decision to make.
I loved this book. I do love me a good thriller / mystery and this was up among the best for me. Grit, suspense and drama all in one. Love it!
Sounds like a great thriller. Rape scene sounds tough though. I haven’t been in thriller mode lately but I’ll keep this in mind. Love the cover
It was great, Deb. Don’t let the rape scene put you off, it’s not graphic, it’s more that you feel her sense of fear.
Sounds like a great read!
You and I have had a good thriller/suspense experience this week, The Tulip Virus was my latest and greatest, really good stuff.
Mandy, I had been eyeing up that book after you read it – I must add it to my pile.
Sounds great Boof, I’m going to keep this in mind and read it when I’m in the mood for some good thriller!
I loved the “the past the present the terror”, sounds super mysterious!
Yes, it certainly is a good thriller Lua. I hope you enjoy if and when you read it.
This sounds like an excellent book, but I’m slightly worried about the rape scene – those things tend to REALLY affect me :\ Then again, some of my favourite books ever deal with sexual abuse, so I won’t refuse to read it on that account.
I can understand that Nymeth – if I see on the blurb that some scenes are graphic it tends to put me off too. The ones that I have read have been accidental as I haven’t known they would be there. This was disturbing in the way that it was designed to make you hate the purportrator and want to see him get his cumuppence but it wasn’t so bad really.
Wow this sounds good. I wish I had read your thoughts on this yesterday before I went to Barnes and Noble. I seriously had my first ever event where I walked out of a book store without purchasing a book! I just couldn’t commit.
Sheila, I feel your pain. I have only done that a few times and it’s a HORRIBLE experience – really quite frightening! I hope you recover from your temporary insanity soon
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Just discovered this blog through Google, what a pleasant surprise!
Thank you