Case Study
A
Taylor Case Mystery
C.
R. Cardin
Evolution Press (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 0-9797412-6-2 (0979741262)
ISBN-13: 978-0-9797412-6-5 (9780979741265)
Publication Date: May 2008
List Price: $23.95
Synopsis
(from
the publisher): The childhood abduction of her brother has left Dr.
Taylor Case desperate for her father’s redemption and denying
her own desire to find love. While teaching forensic science at
Georgetown University, she secretly hunts down child predators ensuring
justice is served -- one way or another. As Taylor prepares to wrap-up
fall semester, she finds herself in the middle of yet another
treacherous child abduction, and this one is close to home.
During a birthday celebration for her niece, Taylor learns of the
suspected abduction of her nephew’s playmate, Kevin. She
grows impatient with the FBI’s efforts to track down the
missing boy in spite of the evidence she collects and shares with the
dashing Agent Anderson.
Driven by obsessive desire and unwilling to let history repeat itself,
she initiates her own plan, knowing she must find Kevin soon if she is
to find him at all. Taylor’s efforts toward saving the
missing boy draw her further and further into a chilling international
web of child brokering, and this time she may have gone too far.
In her dangerous attempt to rescue Kevin, Taylor finds herself the
hunted, captured by a vengeful killer who intends to silence her
permanently. Will it be too late for Kevin?
Review:
C. R. Cardin introduces forensic science professor Dr. Taylor Case who
becomes involved in an investigation of a kidnapped boy in Case Study.
Teaching students is Taylor's day job but she leads a secret double
life bringing child pornographers to justice. Despite lacking
any official capacity, she is instrumental in ensuring that the
criminals are arrested, even to the point of planting evidence for the
authorities to find. She believes that her own brother was kidnapped
years ago for the purposes of being forced into pornography and is
obsessed with finding him, or at least knowing what happened to him.
When a young boy living on the same street as her sister goes missing,
she's convinced he's been kidnapped and undertakes a secret
investigation separate from the FBI to locate him and return him to his
home.
Though Case
Study
is a routinely plotted mystery, it is unusual both in how it
is written and a specific tangential subplot that is introduced along
the way. The narrative is roughly evenly divided between the
perspective of Taylor and that of the FBI. When Taylor is in the
picture, the prose is terse, almost brusque, as if she is emotionless
or at best humorless. This may be partly intentional to illustrate how
she developed as an adult, from her relationship with her father to the
loss of her brother. It's unnerving at times to read. About midway
through, the FBI takes over and the writing style reverts to that more
commonly found in a police procedural. The subplot involves a visiting
scientist to whom Taylor finds herself sexually attracted. She fears
the scientist may in some way be associated with child pornography, yet
she allows her physical desire to overtake her intellectual and
emotional revulsion. It's a bit of a rollercoaster ride for both Taylor
and the reader yet at the same time seems oddly incompatible with the
mystery.
In large part Case Study
reads as if sections of two or three different and incomplete
outlines for books were melded here, the result being a not quite
cohesive story that works at some level but appears unfinished
nonetheless.
Special thanks to Evolution Press for providing a copy of Case Study for this review.
Review Copyright © 2008 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved.
Mysteries in this series ...
Case Study
Evolution Press (Hardcover), May 2008
ISBN-10: 0-9797412-6-2 (0979741262)
ISBN-13: 978-0-9797412-6-5 (9780979741265)
Omnimystery keywords for Case Study ...
Location(s) referenced: Washington DC.