An aspiring artist. A high-school senior. A stripper. Three women who seemed to have nothing in common except their sudden disappearance. But one man knew them all. Wealthy, privileged Craig Thornton even claimed to love them. And for that, they paid the ultimate price.
When Adrianna Barrington receives an anniversary card from her husband Craig, she assumes it’s some crackpot’s idea of a joke. After all, Craig is dead. But then come phone calls, flowers, messages. . .all reminding her how much Craig misses her. While Adrianna begins to doubt her sanity, grisly remains are found on the Thornton estate. Detective Gage Hudson is convinced the bodies are linked to Craig. But the biggest shocks are yet to come.
A psychopath has taken up his chilling work again, each death a prelude to the moment when she is under his control at last. And the only way for Gage and Adrianna to stop him is to uncover the truth about a family’s dark past–and a twisted love that someone will kill for, again and again.
I’ve been reading Burton’s books for the past couple years and I was beginning to think I had a pretty good handle on how she writes. I was wrong. The whodunit part of a mystery is one I love the most and one I’ve gotten good at guessing over the years. This time, however, Ms. Burton got the upper hand. Her red herrings were so good I totally fell for them and never guessed the truth.
The way the story developed was good, with the suspense and the stakes ratcheting up with every turn of the page, making for a breathless finish. The romance part of it was almost sidelined and believe me when I say, that’s a good thing. Oftentimes a good mystery is totally spoiled when the sex and love and all that mushy-mushy stuff takes over. Not so here. In this story, the protagonists have a history together and not a nice one at that. Which makes their getting closer now all the more harder and more interesting. Plus, the suspenseful events, the growing pile of bodies, the stalking etc are events that so overshadow their burgeoning relationship that it becomes almost, but not quite, sidelined.
In the end, a satisfactory conclusion is reached, although I must say the far-fetched explanations were right out of some melodramatic Hollywood movie of bygone years. Still, it was a good read and the author does a great job of developing the story, characters and the mystery.
Dying Scream
Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Zebra
ISBN-10: 1420100289
Disclosure – This product was received for review/feature consideration.
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