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Despite having graduated magna cum laude with a degree in International Relations in 1993, Lisa Gardner spent a bare two years working as a management consultant before forsaking business for full time writing. Small wonder. She sold her first novel - romantic suspense - while still studying. She won awards for this sub-genre using the nom-de-plume Alicia Scott. Later she turned more to suspense tinged with romance than the reverse and in this field has proved very popular with her Pierce Quincy series: The Perfect Husband, The Other Daughter, The Third Victim, The Next Accident as well as The Survivors Club. We have all been told about the advisability of sticking to a good thing when onto it and Ms Gardner has obviously learned the FBI plus suspense plus romance and a goodly spurt of arterial blood is the basis of a good thing. In The Killing Hour we have the formula revisited. The romantic possibilities of Pierce Quincy and his partner Lorraine Conner have apparently been all but exhausted so this new book concentrates on the surviving Quincy daughter, Kimberly who, predictably, has wanted since childhood to follow in her father's footsteps and become an FBI Special Agent. Prior to the main action of the narrative, a murderous eco-freak has taken to kidnapping girls, in pairs, during heat waves. The first of the two he murders and leaves clues as to the whereabouts of the second on the first girl's body to give investigators a fighting chance at discovering the second girl's whereabouts. Since initially the goodies have no idea of his modus operandi, only one of eight girls is found alive. The original murders and kidnappings take place in Georgia but now, in Virginia, where Kimberly Quincy is undergoing training to be a Special Agent, four girls are taken - although their absence is not detected for some time. GBI Special agent Mac McCormack was the lead investigator in the Georgia murders and is present when Kimberly discovers a body on the Quantico base. He sees similarities between Kimberly's very first corpse when under the auspices of the FBI to his own previous investigation. Of course, the fact that he has been getting phone calls from someone he suspects is the killer has given him an edge. He presses Kimberly into service as his investigation team and they begin their own search. In the meantime, Kimberly's dad, Pierce Quincy - of the piercing eyes, of course - and his partner Lorraine have been hired as outside consultants. The heat intensifies and we are given brief glimpses into the killer's head. He seems a tad confused. We are also permitted glimpses into the mind of one of the kidnapped girls, pregnant Tina, who is determined to live despite the searing heat. She wants to save her baby as well as herself and see her own mother again. A soupçon of the supernatural is laid down in this tale as the one survivor of the murderer's previous forays makes her way into the investigation. Of course, there are lashings of love, primarily between Mac and Kimberley but also a reprise from Pierce and Lorraine. The Geological Survey team is given a starring role in the investigation and attempted rescue. The difficulties Mac, Kimberley and their cohorts as well as the victims and the murderer encounter are no doubt reflections of what Ms Gardner has experienced in her hiking career. For those who have enjoyed this author's previous experiments with the FBI I have no doubt this oeuvre will prove irresistible. Note: This review is based on the Australian release published by Orion on August 1, 2003.
Reviewed by Denise Wels, August 2003
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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