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THE DYING GAME
by Beverly Barton
Zebra, March 2008
440 pages
$6.99
ISBN: 0821776894


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

A sick game of murder. A maniacally clever killer. The victims are former beauty queens, each found with a single rose, each body brutally mutilated according to her talent.

Detective Lindsay McAllister worked the case as a rookie for the Chattanooga Police Department and now works for a private security and investigation firm run by Griffin Powell. When the latest victim of the Beauty Queen Killer survives the attack, Griff sends Lindsay to contact lawyer Judd Walker, whose wife was one of the killer's first victims nearly four years earlier. His wife's death left Judd emotionally empty, existing simply for revenge, and Griff believes that Lindsay is the only one who can help him. Lindsay has to dig into painful memories to convince Judd that his wife's killer has struck again, knowing she can't win without his help. The murderer is getting bolder, faster and more ruthless. The game has escalated, the rules have changed, and the body count is rising. With each body, the cruelty of the murder becomes more pronounced, and Lindsay, Griff and Judd run a desperate race to stop the killing once and for all.

Barton has woven an intricate and intriguing web of subplots into the main story of THE DYING GAME. Griff Powell and his close colleague and confidant Dr Yvette Meng are mysterious and enigmatic. FBI Special Agent Nic Baxter is a hard-edged woman who's also hiding a secret, and she and Griff have a hate-hate relationship that vibrates with friction and conflict even though they're both working to catch the killer. Sexual tension permeates the story without overshadowing it. Judd Walker is the most complex character of all, eviscerated by grief yet finally motivated by the power of unshakable devotion to break through his empty shell, to heal and to conquer his demons.

Even the killer has his own story, and Barton tells it with chilling intimacy, exploring in succinct but fulfilling detail the lives of each of the victims as well as their violent deaths - dancers have their feet chopped off, pianists lose their hands. Each character is a piece of the larger puzzle, and Barton fits them together with fluid skill, delivering an ending that has both a nice resolution and an equally nice teaser for what may come in the future.

Reviewed by J.B. Thompson, May 2008

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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