Absolute Fear

When Eve Renner discovers her childhood friend murdered in a remote cabin before sustaining a gunshot wound that gives her partial amnesia, she sees her lover, the defense attorney Cole holding the gun. Thinking he tried to kill her while he thinks she is unfaithful it is not a good beginning for a happy ending.

But the killer is still on the loose and after the gruesome murders, leaves his signature three numbered tattoo on his victims. Cole has been held but not indicted and the day he goes free is the same day Eve travels back to New Orleans after recovering at her brother and sister-in-law's house. Although she has a restraining order on Cole, he ignores it and comes to her house late at night to tell Eve that her father had been murdered. Surprisingly she forgives him and they begin to investigate the murder along with two detectives, and Kristy, daughter of Detective Bentz and aspiring crime writer. Clues to Eve's parentage are left by the killer and she explores the long abandoned asylum where she played as a child.

My favorite scene was when Eve crawled into the asylum and discovered her bloodied doll in the attic where she used to play. It was twisted and creepy...at least the first time.

This was a fast-paced exciting story but to tell the truth, had some major implausibility problems and on the whole I was a little disappointed. First off the Cole/Eve relationship problem. Do women really overlook domestic danger, perceived or not, because of a hunky body and penetrating blue eyes?

Every time the serial killer is mentioned he is either fantasizing about or on the verge of raping and killing Eve. But he doesn't. In fact, considering his extreme obsession the man seems to spend an astonishing amount of time and energy not raping and killing Eve. And what he does in his free time is so far fetched it is impossible to suspend disbelief. In addition to setting up bloody doll scenes, calling Eve at just the right time to freak her out, and killing pigs, he achieves an amazingly high body count while the two detectives run around in circles trying to figure out a way to blame Cole.

Kristy, our aspiring writer is outraged that her father will not divulge details of an investigation in progress. As the daughter of a detective this seems strange but whatever, she decides to quit her job and investigate on her own. Like Eve, this road also leads to the abandoned asylum. But what really happened there? I kept reading about allegations of abuse but with the exception of a vague unsubstantiated accusation towards the end, not one was thoroughly explained. It was very frustrating.

This book should have been better. It has a great beginning and Jackson can certainly set up a spooky scene. I heard good things about Shiver so maybe I will read that at some point.