Thursday, August 16, 2012

Hot paranormal murder mystery


The Last Victim  
By Karen Robards
eISBN: 978-0-345-53544-3
An August, 2012 releasefrom
Ballantine Books.

This first novel in a new series by this veteran writer is a ghost story. A romantic hot ghost story. I’m not a fan of ghost or paranormal stories. It’s not that I don’t believe in the possibility of another dimension or two. I do, but too often the paranormal element in a good crime fiction novel breeds sloppiness. Not in this case.

All too often, the inclusion of a strong romantic element in a good crime novel is just a way for the novelist to beef up a weak plot line. Not in this novel. There’s enough good emotional sex in this story to satisfy the most prurient reader, but it’s handled in a precise way that adds to the character of the principal actors, and it comes in logical sequence in the story. The plot line, an increasingly frantic search for a kidnapped teen aged young woman by a serial killer, is tension-filled from the first page and it peaks in the final resolution at precisely the right moment.

The writing is clean, the story line almost impeccable, although some FBI agents lose a little polish in some scenes. The love story between shade and serial killer specialist, psychiatrist Dr. Charlotte “Charlie” Stone, is, well, hot and nicely realized. She had me, almost from the first sentence. Highly recommended.

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