THE KILL

Author: Allison Brennan ISBN: 0345485238 3/2006 SUSPENSE Publisher: BALLANTINE

Her worst nightmare brought back to life, she risks everything for a second shot at justice. For thirty years, FBI scientist Olivia St. Martin has lived with guilt and one abiding certainty–that while she wasn’t able to save her sister’s life, she did testify and helped to convict the rapist and killer. When shocking new evidence exonerates the man Olivia is sure she saw abduct her sister, she breaks every rule in the book to uncover the truth. Driven by the possibility that she put the wrong man behind bars, Olivia discovers that a serial killer has been at large all these years. Believing that the monster has just struck again in Seattle, Olivia leaves her lab and poses as a field agent, sharing her unofficial investigation with a hardworking Seattle cop. Olivia doesn’t want to lie to detective Zack Travis. And she certainly doesn’t want to fall in love. But as the investigation intensifies, Olivia and Zack find that they’re rapidly losing control–over their hearts, their secrets, and a case that threatens to consume them.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

Allison Brennan can flat-out write suspense.

In fact, this relative newcomer can just plain flat-out write. Period.

Ms. Brennan has an uncanny knack for building suspense, while delivering some remarkable characters, a smoothly presented storyline along with meticulous research. The romance aspect of the novel is pretty spectacular, too.

THE KILL, Ms. Brennan's third romantic suspense, is brilliantly executed—a real edge-of-your-seat thriller—that continues the excellence of THE PREY and THE HUNT.

The creepy factor is there in THE KILL (as in her two previous novels), but Ms. Brennan wisely distances readers from gory crime scenes.

Good thing, because THE KILL deals with a serial killer who preys on children. The almost unbearable image of society's most vulnerable victim suffering at the hands of a monster is bad enough without a reader having to endure blow-by-blow detail of the young victim's agony.

Instead, THE KILL deals more with the intricacies of the murder investigation as well as the psychological damage to the living victims—the family and friends of murdered children.

THE KILL's heroine, FBI scientist Olivia St. Martin, is one of those living victims. Olivia's older sister was the first victim of this particular killer more than 30 years ago. That crime not only drastically altered Olivia's idyllic childhood, but has colored her entire life.

Ms. Brennan's expose of the effects of this brand of violence is tempered with compassion and remarkable insight.

Olivia is a finely drawn character but Seattle detective Zack Travis just about steals the show. This macho, hard-nosed cop is every woman's dream man—big, bold, sexy with a deep core of empathy and understanding. This pair is fantastic together—two loners who align perfectly together.

Ms. Brennan also does an admirable job with THE KILL's murderer by showing how a violent, horrific childhood molds a twisted mind. A reader cannot be untouched by the effects of a brutal childhood on an impressionable mind.

All in all, THE KILL is an intense, exciting, moving romantic thriller. Ms. Brennan makes all the right moves in this energy-charged suspense.

Debbie Jett