If you were a former watcher of Lost, or are a current watcher of From, or any of the dozens of mystery type shows where the show would be over if two or three characters just TALKED to each other and answered a damn question every once in a while, this book might drive you up the wall. The mystery part of the story was good, and the concept is cool, but holy hell I wanted to shake at least three or four of the main characters.
Avery was born into a family with gifts. Her father can see when and how people are going to die. Her brother sees ghosts. She can sense people’s losses (little ones, like car keys, and big ones, like murdered loved ones). Her parents used the gifts to become con artists, but she and her brother Latham escaped and try to live on the straight and narrow. When the story starts, Avery is running from a case of a serial kidnapper and murderer she was trying to help the FBI with. When she misinterprets one of her visions and a little girl dies, she flees in guilt and angst (SO MUCH angst in this book).
Younger Avery was madly in love with Jack, but her father told her she would die by Jack’s hand. So she also ran away from him, 10 years ago. Now she’s back in her hometown to check on her brother, and Jack is recently divorced, and ANGST. “Tell me why you ran from me! I loved you!” “I can’t tell you! You would hate me! I have a Big Angsty Secret!” Over and over and over. She tries and tries to send Jack away, but he does that forceful male thing where he thinks he knows better than her and must get his way and bullies his way into her life whether she likes it or not. And I think maybe this is supposed to be romantic? NO. If a woman tells you to go away, GO. “I’m doing this for your own good” stops being reasonable once a person is over four years old. Her brother does the same thing. He’s keeping a Big Angsty Secret to protect her, but it’s killing him. BARF on all these strong manly men who know what’s best for her. (Her FBI handler and best friend the cop are better about this, but not much.)
Then it becomes apparent that the killer has followed her home, and little girls (along with Jack’s young son) are kidnapped, and she’s drawn back into the case. She has to save the kids, save her brother, keep herself alive, and try to keep Jack at arm’s length even as he’s trying his damndest to protect her.
I dunno. I am not an urban fantasy reader, and this feels like maybe it was not my genre, but the story definitely drew me in, even though I wanted to bonk Avery and Jack and Latham on the heads – for their own good, of course.
ANGST:
“I fought back a rising tide of dread. I couldn’t go there. Not now. I wasn’t entirely sure I’d survive it. No good could come of dwelling on negative possibilities, and I tried to shift my focus to a safer subject.”
“Who was that girl back then, I wondered, the one brave enough to step forward and say I want? She was foolish, stupid beyond repair, and my soul rent apart because I wanted her back. Dear God, I wanted her back.”