Blown Away
An Emily Thompson Mystery
Shane Gericke
Pinnacle (Mass Market Paperback)
ISBN-10: 0-7860-1813-5 (0786018135)
ISBN-13: 978-0-7860-1813-0 (9780786018130)
Publication Date: May 2006
List Price: $6.99
Synopsis (from
the publisher): A serial killer is playing a deadly game. There are no
rules except one: The killer always wins. The loser always dies.
Since joining the force, rookie cop Emily Thompson has had one
ambition: to work homicide. Now she’s got her chance. A twisted
sociopath is turning her safe Chicago
suburb into a brutal killing field, and every single one of his grisly
clues leads directly to Emily. In 72 hours, on her fortieth birthday,
he intends to make her his greatest trophy. If she doesn’t stop
him before then, Emily’s first case will be her last.
In a city gripped by terror, and with little more to go on than her
instincts, Emily must match wits with a madman bent on chilling
revenge. It is an investigation that will lead her into a nightmare
world of unimaginable crimes, the dark secrets of her own
past—and to a final shocking discovery…
Review: Blown Away,
the debut police procedural thriller in a new series by Shane Gericke,
gets high marks for action, but falls short on originality.
Rookie cop Emily Thompson finds herself the target of a psychopathic
killer after (literally) stumbling across clues left for her to find,
clues she and her fellow officers will need to decipher in order to
identify him. Gericke, however, makes no effort to mask the identity of
the killer to the reader, so Blown Away becomes more of a "whydunit"
than a "whodunit".
There are several clever plot elements in Blown Away,
the tautly written prologue is especially chilling, and some of the
secondary characters are particularly interesting, but all of these are
overshadowed by questionable lapses in logic as the plot unfolds and
the depiction of a police force that at times seems unusually inept.
With Emily Thompson as a lead, Gericke has created a dynamic cast of
characters that, together with more original plots, should serve him
well in future books in this series.
Special thanks to Breakthrough Promotions for providing a copy of Blown Away for this review.
Review Copyright © 2006 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved.
Mysteries in this series ...
Blown Away
Pinnacle (Mass Market Paperback), May 2006
ISBN-10: 0-7860-1813-5 (0786018135)
ISBN-13: 978-0-7860-1813-0 (9780786018130)
Cut to the Bone
Pinnacle (Mass Market Paperback), June 2007
ISBN-10: 0-7860-1814-3 (0786018143)
ISBN-13: 978-0-7860-1814-7 (9780786018147)
Omnimystery keywords for Blown Away ...
Location(s) referenced: Chicago.
