Teacher Isabelle Carson is grief-stricken, angry, and scared. Three of her childhood friends have died. The police say they’re suicides, but Isabelle knows they would never, ever take their own lives. Her past binds her to every victim, and she knows it’s only a matter of time before the killer comes after her. Only one man can help her now, the only man she’s ever trusted, the man who saved her so long ago…
For Grant Kent, Delta Force vet, just being near Isabelle brings back old memories and desires, and stirs longings he’d rather deny. Yet he can’t ignore the real terror in her eyes, or resist the thought of holding her again. But even as their friendship begins to blossom into a passionate affair, a killer continues his deadly rampage and plots his next move: the “suicide” of Isabelle Carson.
When Isabelle Carson calls Grant Kent to warn him to “be careful”, Grant decides that he’ll stop by her house since he’s traveling in her direction. When he sees her, he knows that he can’t begin the new life he has planned until he’s sure Isabelle is safe. Grant was only in the same foster home with Isabelle for a short while, but it’s a time that he’ll never forget. Though he didn’t know her long, he became her champion for life.
When her friends start committing suicide, Isabelle is terrified. Each one of the suicides were people that were in the same foster home as she. Isabelle soon becomes convinced that it’s not suicide, but murder. Warning Grant was an impulsive decision, once it was made, she couldn’t take it back. She bitterly regrets it when Grant shows up on her doorstep.
It’s always interesting when the killer is revelaed to the reader from the beginning. It makes it more suspensful when the reader knows that the heroine or hero is conversing with the killer, with no freaking clue. I think that by revealing that, Butcher definitely made the book better.
I had a problem w/ Grant. He was one of those heroes that “doesn’t deserve to be happy”. He doesn’t deserve the happiness than his friends have found. He doesn’t deserve Isabelle or the children she wants to help. It got old. Really fast. Especially since it started on the first page.
Without Grant’s hangups (or without as much page time given to Grant’s hangups) I would have enjoyed the book much more.
3.5 out of 5.
This book is available from Forever. You can buy it here or here in e-format.
Other books in the series:
Huh, I had a similar problem with Butcher’s characters in her two other books. Plus, her plots weren’t very tight, two reasons I hadn’t planned on reading this installment, even less now. But thanks for the review :).
Thanks for the review.