THE KILLING HOUR by Lisa Gardner
THE KILLING HOUR by Lisa Gardner is a novel that grabs you by the throat in the first few pages and doesn't turn you loose for three hundred more. Gardner knows how to gain your attention and she does so with ease. Then she keeps you hooked through a wild ride during a summer heat wave. This is suspense writing at its best, and you best not start THE KILLING HOUR unless you have several hours to get it read. It is totally unputdownable!
The book tells the story of a deranged killer who abducts young girls in twos during the hottest days of summer. One body is found quickly and the second one not so fast. It is a game this maniac plays with the police and it gets worse and worse as the hot days progress.
GBI Agent Mac McCormack has traveled from Georgia to Quantico, Virginia, where the FBI training unit is located, in order to gain some information about the killer. While he is there the killer strikes again and leaves a body on the grounds at Quantico. It is discovered by Kimberly Pierce, an FBI trainee.
Once she has discovered the body, Kimberly can not just walk away. She wants to be part of the investigation into the murder and manages this by teaming up with Mac. They discover clues which take them on a wild chase across the state of Virginia. And while they hunt the killer and the "second" victim, one young woman fights for her life in a torture pit.
Gardner manages to keep the story moving at all times and uses her knowledge of investigative procedures to give the story credibility and weight. In this story you not only read the facts, you virtually live them. You also get to know the characters personally and ache when they ache and stress when they stress. And in THE KILLING HOUR they ache and stress a lot.
This is a good book because it is so tense and taut. There is not one excess word in the story and not one description that is omitted. Lisa Gardner knows exactly how to present her clues in order to make the reader aware of what is to come, and to understand what has passed.
If you want a chilling novel to read on a hot summer night then pick up a copy of THE KILLING HOUR. It will make you sweat with its tension and its terrific cast of characters. Gardner is a super talented writer and one to watch.
THE KILLING HOUR is published by Bantam Books. It contains 324 pages and sells for $23.95.