LETHAL by Sandra Brown

Publisher: Grand Central
Date published: September 20, 2011
ISBN: 978-1455501472
Thriller
Hardback
Reviewed by Gina
Obtained by Publisher


Safe at home, planning a birthday party, the last thing Honor Gillette expects is for her little daughter, Emily, to spot an injured man, all but dead, in her front yard. Before she can help the injured man, he takes Honor and Emily hostage, making them prisoners in their own home. Honor quickly realizes Lee Coburn is the man who killed seven men in a mass murder at a local warehouse. Coburn terrorizes her with threats of harming Emily and bit by bit tears her home apart looking for something. Something indefinable. One of those things he’ll know when he sees it.

Coburn has a secret. A huge secret. He’s determined to find the one thing Honor’s deceased husband left behind that holds all the answers he is looking for. A loner who works alone, he forges ahead, methodically searching Honor’s home, time and again threatening her and her child with no remorse.

Twins Fred and Doral Hawkins are determined to capture Coburn and make him pay for the warehouse murders.

A nefarious person, the Bookkeeper, has no mercy. No failure. No mercy and is determined to bring Coburn down. Taking Honor and Emily with him, Coburn flees for his life.

I have to admit I had a hard time getting through the first 100 pages or so of LETHAL by Sandra Brown. It moved slow as molasses and it was an effort to keep changing the pages. I hadn’t read anything of Ms. Brown’s for several years and my memory was of a super read with action and romance. Where did it go?

And then….around page 100 BAM! LETHAL took off into not only a page turner, but a breath holding, toe curling, cannot put this book down thriller. Ms. Brown surpassed herself and went beyond the fabulous stories I’d read before. The author caught me so completely unaware not only with how fast the story kicked into gear but the twists and turns had me telling myself “one more chapter, one more chapter” unable to put the book down. I wanted to trust one of the characters—just one of them—but each one had a secret, each one had a reason for keeping the truth hidden.

And the ending? Wow. I definitely did not expect it.

Personally I would have liked something more definite about Coburn and Honor’s ultimate outcome. We are left to draw our own conclusions, perhaps envision our own ending. Or we can trust that it’s the one we want.

All in all, LETHAL is a do not miss read.

This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.