Lisa Jackson, Absolute Fear

Absolute Fear

Lisa Jackson

Kensington, Apr 2007, $19.95

ISBN 0758211821

Three months have passed since that fatal night that still haunts Eve Renner, the adopted daughter of Dr. Terrence Renner, former chief psychiatrist at the now-closed Our Lady of Virtues Mental Hospital. That evening her borderline paranoid childhood friend Roy demanded Eve meet him at his Uncle Vernon Kajak's remote fishing cabin as he has evidence. Instead the serial killer the Reviver murdered Roy; Eve saw her boyfriend Cole's face just before going unconscious. She suffers from amnesia, but fears Cole is this number-tattooing psychopath avenging an apparent affront received at the asylum.

Detectives Reuben Montoya and Rick Bentz lead the investigation but though they question Cole, they lack evidence to hold him. As the cops try to stop a deranged killer from adding new numbers to the body count, Eve believes answers to the murderer's identity and why can be found in Our Lady of Virtues Mental Hospital where she grew up. However, she needs help so she wonders whether she should turn to Cole, who just might be the killer.

ABSOLUTE FEAR will send shivers up and down the spine of the audience every time the Reviver leaves his tattoo numbers behind on the latest corpse. Eve is a terrific central character as she wonders if the man she loves is the killer while deciding to uncover the truth by going into the asylum where she knows "hell" awaits her. On a personal side note for those fans following these Bayou thrillers, Reuben's fianc e Abby Chastain thinks Eve might be her half-sister. Though asylum serial killers and heroines with amnesia can be trite devices, Lisa Jackson keeps her plot brisk and fresh as the action-packed, twisting storyline thoroughly entertains readers.

Harriet Klausner