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Television newswoman Lacie Wagner is recuperating in Nantucket after the event in Jeannine Kadowís last novel, Burnout. In that book, Lacieís former husband was murdered and her daughter kidnapped by a madman who killed her father and scarred her hands for life. During the bookís climax she confronts her tormentor and kills him in self-defense. It is now six months later. Lacie has recuperated from her burns and is anxious to get back to work Her next door neighbor wants her to get back to work in order to tell a story ñ his story. Justin Vale is a serial killer with a drowning fixation. For the last few years he has managed to kill a number of people for pleasure as well as through work. He has an unlimited amount of money and resources that he uses to gather his victims and manipulate situations. Now he wants what no one else can give him and that is notoriety. Vale sees himself as an avatar of water and is obsessed with something called the eighth ocean (It will be explained in the book). He considers Lacie to be the avatar of fire. She can give him what she wants and he knows that water always beats fire. While jogging near her property, Lacie finds the drowned body of an unidentified woman washed up on the beach unaware that Vale planted her there. Wagner goes into full reporter mode and starts to research and report the story. While working on her investigation she meets her next-door neighbor and is entranced. Justin regales her with stories about the sea and sweeps her up her feet managing to seduce her body and soul. As soon as he gets what he wants he disappears leaving Lacie with lots of questions. Once she realizes what Vale has done through the years she goes into full vengeance mode wanting to punish him for what he has done to his previous dead victims. Lacie finds out that she is out of her league in trying to find this cunning man and enlists the help of mercenary Nick St. James in trying to stop Justin before he kills anyone else. What starts as a good suspense novel turns into a mindless action adventure. The serial killer does not really have a past until near the end of the novel. The reader is left clueless as to how he was able to get away with murder for so long. She spends time developing the reporterís character but not on the killer. It might have helped to include Valeís first killing in the prologue instead of a recent victim. The storyís climax is rather predictable as well as its ending. Kadow knows how to write about strong-willed women but the story might be enhanced had she given the men involved a bit more personality. It would not surprise me if, should Lacie Wagner return in a new book, she faces against someone obsessed with skydiving. First there was fire, next was water, is it now time for wind?
Reviewed by Angel L. Soto, October 2002
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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