The Body Reader
A Novel of Suspense by Anne Frasier
Review: The Body Reader, a novel of suspense by Anne Frasier, brings together two remarkable characters in Detectives Jude Fontaine and Uriah Ashby.
Jude was abducted as she was jogging one morning and put in a very small enclosed room with no windows. She was kept naked, fed little, and was tortured and raped by a man she did not know. It was over three years that this sadist held her prisoner. During that time she learned everything about him: the outline of his face and body and his mood swings. She was able to feel what he was feeling: his anger, his loneliness, his desolation. Through a quirk of fate she was able to unarm him, kill him and escape, taking his shirt to cover her nude body. When Jude was finally able to return to her job as a detective in the Homicide Division of the Minneapolis Police Department, she was given a new partner, Uriah Ashby.
Uriah really did not feel Jude was ready to take on cases involving missing and murdered female young teenagers. He thought the notoriety of her escape from being a captive for three years and the fact that she was the estranged daughter of the Governor would be a hindrance in her work. Jude was strong, however, and quite quickly was back to honing her skills as a detective. Her enhanced senses from her enslavement set her a little apart from the others.
Jude and Uriah both had suffered losses in the past and were still clinging to the misery it had caused. But, their memories must be set aside at least for a while as there were the bodies of two young girls found, at first thought to be suicides. Jude did not feel this was true. She believed the girls had been murdered. Plus, there were other teenagers missing. The found clues that made Jude believe these incidents could be related to deadly occurrences in the past. A search of cold case files revealed other teenagers found dead or missing.
Will Jude and Uriah be able to work together to solve the mysteries of the murders? Will they be able to reconcile with her past? Will Jude discover why her abductor chose her to be his prisoner?
The Body Reader is a superb novel full of suspenseful exploits. Jude and Uriah are very likeable as lead characters, both individually and as a team. The supporting cast is equally well-developed making this a very enjoyable reading experience. There is no romance between the leads, which made for a stronger story as it would have been distracting at the very least. The storyline itself is intriguing, with the past meshing with the present in unexpected ways. This is an electrifying murder mystery — one of the best of the year.
Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of The Body Reader.
Acknowledgment: Thomas & Mercer provided a copy of The Body Reader for this review.
Review Copyright © 2016 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved
Location(s) referenced in The Body Reader: Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota
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The Body Reader by Anne Frasier — A Novel of Suspense
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Format: Trade Paperback
ISBN-13: 978-1-5039-3520-4
Publication Date: June 2016
List Price: $15.95
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Page Author: Lance Wright Site Publisher: Mysterious Reviews
Mysterious Reviews is a Division of The Hidden Staircase Mystery Books and a Business Unit of the Omnimystery Family of Mystery Websites
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