Bernadette Saint Claire or Cat as she is called for she has odd eyes, just like the Catahoula Leopard dogs that share the same trait, has a very special gift: not only can she converse and fully interact with the ghosts of the recently departed, she is also able to see through the eyes of the monsters she hunts. This ability, however, is no church picnic. Being immersed in the mind of a serial killer leaves Agent Saint Claire exhausted and increasingly attuned to the innermost thoughts, urges and feelings of her quarry. And that's not a nice place to be!
| Blind Rage by Terri Persons | |
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| Category: General Fiction | |
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Reviewer: Kerry King
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| Summary: Terri Persons superb follow-up novel to her debut, Blind Spot, sees FBI Agent Bernadette Saint Claire investigating a string of troubled young women's suicides. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 352 | Date: August 2008 |
| Publisher: Century | |
| ISBN: 978-1846051333 | |
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We begin the saga with a neat dovetail out of the first book. Persons accounts for her protagonist's appearance and supernatural powers quickly and efficiently without the reader once feeling like they missed something by not reading the other book first and segues faultlessly into the overture.
A series of young college girls' watery suicides prickles the keen, suspicious, intuitive nose of Agent Bernadette Saint Claire. Her hunch is that there is nothing remotely kamikaze about the women who begin turning up dead at increasingly regular intervals. Moreover, her gut feeling is that they were murdered by a sadistic, fetishistic serial killer. The trouble with Bernadette's gut feelings, however, is that they have managed to get her into a lot of trouble in the past.
I don't know about you but I like my heroines to be tough, occasionally scary, no-nonsense chicks that are actually very deep-running, still waters. Cat fits the bill here by the truck-load and her supporting cast are interesting (particularly the late Agent Creed) and collaborative and were well reprised from the author's first novel (though I was disappointed to note the absence of Augie – I was unsure of his purpose in Blind Spot, but given the added dimension Blind Rage has given the characters, it may have been good to see him again).
Where I found Blind Spot a little skinny around the middle, I am delighted to tell you that Blind Rage delivers in pretty much every area. I may have figured out who was driving the boat some way before the end of the story (the disadvantage of having a husband with the ability to ruin the plot of some of the best movies ever made is apparently communicable) but unlike with Blind Spot, it didn't spoil the run up to the conclusion. Persons did a great job of taking you down some wrong turnings, leading you on to believe it might be two or perhaps three other characters, which for my shilling was a job well done.
To summarise, I found Blind Rage to be far superior to Blind Spot, which whilst still a relatively enjoyable read did not have the same impetus. They say it's a hard job trying to better a first novel. I can honestly say that Terri Persons has achieved that and more with this second outing and I look forward to reading the next!
Thank you to the boys and girls at Random House for sending Blind Rage to us at The Bookbag for review.
For the sake of completeness, have a look at Blind Spot even if only for the further character background; it's worth it. Also, if these FBI hunt-them-down stories are your thing, please see The Blue Zone by Andrew Gross, which is excellent, as is The Darkness Inside by John Rickards. If you are still left wanting by the above recommendations, you may also want to check out Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn for its 'flawed' investigator angle or perhaps if you want something in the same ballpark as a 'getting-the-bad-guy' novel but you want to lighten up a little and have some fun, you should take a look at Twelve Sharp by Janet Evanovich, one of her many Bounty Hunter novels.
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You can read more book reviews or buy Blind Rage by Terri Persons at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy Blind Rage by Terri Persons at Amazon.com.
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