November 7, 2013
ISBN-978-1420125061
Romantic Suspense
Obtained via: publicist
3-1/2 Hearts
Jo Granger
has built a nice life for herself. Rising
from the ashes of a tragic miscarriage and a marriage gone wrong she has a good
life as a psychologist, consulting in a variety of police cases and in
particular for the Texas Rangers. And then one day her past shows up on her
doorstep…or at least in a case she has an interest in.
Ranger Brody
Winchester has been transferred to the Austin, Texas office and so far has
managed to avoid running into the one woman he never quite got over…over his
personal guilt that is. To his credit he brought about the conviction of serial
killer Harvey Day Smith.
When Smith
decides time and circumstances lead to the time for him to confess just where
he buried a number of missing women he summons Jo Granger to the prison where
he awaits death. Smith doesn’t disclose
the locations of the women’s graves out of the goodness of his heart. Oh no. It
is because he has a secret that will tear apart Jo’s carefully constructed
world.
Jo had no
inclination or desire to ever lay eyes on Brody again, but when his case lands
in her lap because she is the one person Smith wants to share his secret with,
the couple must put aside their differences to recover the deceased women’s
bodies. But Smith’s reign of terror didn’t
end with his prison sentence. Oh no. Not for a minute—someone more nefarious is
lurking in the shadows and he’s coming after Jo. As the clock runs out, with the killer
closing in on Jo, she and Brody are forced to look at their past and what happened
between them.
I thoroughly
enjoyed THE SEVENTH VICTIM which
told the story of Ranger Jim Beck and how he met and saved Lara Church from a
cold blooded serial killer. Jo first
appears in THE SEVENTH VICTIM where
she caught my attention as an interesting character. It was a pleasure to see
she received her own story in NO ESCAPE.
While THE SEVENTH VICTIM is a total
white-knuckle, breath holding thriller, NO
ESCAPE is much more a romantic suspense. There were still some of the same
page turning-can’t-put-this-book-down moments, there was a definite shift to
featuring more romance. To a point I missed some of that spine tingling drama,
but Jo and Brody have an interesting past. I could have done with a few fewer
tellings of what happened between them 14 years before—it became a bit
repetitious to the point I wanted to say “I got it! I got it! Move on!”
There were a
number of typos, more than what you usually see, in the copy I read, but given
it was an ARC one hopes they were picked up in the final copy edit. That said,
they didn’t detract all that much from the story. In THE SEVENTH VICTIM Jo worked directly for the Rangers and seemed to
have an office in their building. In NO ESCAPE she works for a private
psychology practice but there was no explanation for why she changed her
practice group or area.
One thing I
will say about Ms. Burton is that she creates some of the scariest serial
killers I’ve read. She did a fabulous job
getting into Smith’s mind and telling her readers his story. Equally so are
Scott and Tim with what they add to the dark mix that is a killer stalking his
prey.
NO ESCAPE is Mary Burton’s second book featuring
the Texas Rangers based in Austin, Texas.
Interestingly, despite some of the characters from THE SEVENTH VICTIM, featuring in NO ESCAPE, the books are not billed as a series. They are completely stand-alone stories. That
said, I hope there are more of the Ranger’s story—in particular Santos’s cause
he’s just a really nice guy who never seems to get the girl!
"This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this
book."
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