Mark Nykanen

This book started out great. A seriously evil villain with a unique M.O. It got bogged down a bit in the middle, and then the ending picked up and was very exciting.

The point of view skips around quite a bit in this book. We get Strasser (the villain/sculptor), Lauren (the art professor) and Kerry (art student/victim). Strasser likes to kidnap families, torture them for months, and finally kill them and immortalize them in bronze. The public think he is a gifted sculpture, but he is really a serial killer. We get inside his mind, which is full of chatter about how superior he is, and how his victims are lucky he chose them. We see Strasser abduct family #9. We never learn their real names, only the nicknames he gives them.

Family #9 is very dysfunctional. The mother truly hates the daughter, nicknamed Diamond Girl. We never learn exactly why she is hated so much, but it may be because she is a sociopath like Strasser. Diamond Girl tries to play mind games with Strasser, while he tries to manipulate her. It makes for an interesting dynamic. Diamond Girl is easily the most interesting person in the book.

The middle section, with Lauren searching for Kerry got a little tedious for me. Not much happens, just a lot of soul searching on Lauren's part. When she finally goes to confront Strasser, that is when the action picks up again.

This book was an interesting read. It was entertaining. A solid read, but not a great one.… (meer)

Gwyn runs support groups for domestic abusers but she is losing her enthusiasm for the occupation as she feels that the groups are doing little more than encouraging the men to become better at lying. Gwyn herself was an abused child and a suspect in her stepfather's murder - she and her mother have been lying for many years about what exactly happened. Her professional life comes to a time of crisis as abusers from her group are being targeted for murder and, because of her past, Gwyn is a suspect - then it looks like she will become a victim.

This is a good plot which explores some interesting ideas but its execution lets it down. I found this book mostly without tension and climax. The writing was not notably poor but the book was not gripping and I didn't really develop empathy with Gwyn. I find it difficult to identify exactly what was missing, but I found this book easy to put down and I don't think that I shall have the urge to read it again.… (meer)