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Usually when you read a series out of order, you can generally be brought quickly up to date and understand what has gone before. Until this book. This is the third book in a trilogy and I did not read the first two books. At least it is clear who the main characters are. Nina is an FBI Agent and her lover, Ward, possibly used to work for the CIA. They are staying in an isolated cabin in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State, where they apparently were recuperating from the events in the earlier books. Ward has a brother, an evil twin, named Paul. Paul is one of the breed known in the book as Straw Men. Paul is an evil killer, and seems to be one of the leaders of those who want to eliminate all others not like them. As the book opens we also learn that Jim, who used to be called James, is living quietly in Key West when he is summoned. A lot of the first part is devoted to Lee John Hudak in California. A rich Valley kid, he peddles drugs to his rich friends and mostly lives a low key life. Until things spiral out of control and he too becomes a pawn of Paul. Nina is recalled by the FBI and sent to a small town in Virginia where there was a murder and the Feds believe it is a serial killing perpetrated by a woman. Women are generally not serial killers. However, Nina is something of an expert on this small minority of killers. Ward follows, all the while he is sending and receiving emails from an unknown person called Unger, who keeps saying he "can't believe Bobby is dead." One assumes that Bobby died in a previous book. There is killing -- a lot of it, all around Nina and Ward, who both know that somehow Paul is at the bottom of it all. Even though I felt as though I had walked into the middle of a movie, I was intrigued by this book and avidly read it through. Nina and Ward are very likeable people and I wanted to find out the final resolution. The book is well written, although there are many characters that were somewhat hard to keep track of at first, but eventually I managed. The author's two previous books in the series are THE STRAW MEN and THE UPRIGHT MAN. This book is very chilling. I would hesitate to call it a masterpiece, as some of the blurbs do, but it is indeed well written and suspenseful. I would strongly suggest reading the books in order.
Reviewed by Lorraine Gelly, August 2005
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