Selina Rosen and Laura J. Underwood Bad Lands

Bad Lands

Selina Rosen and Laura J. Underwood

Five Star, Jun 2007, $25.95

ISBN: 1594144737

Paranormal forensic pathologist Maggie Holmes, has tried unsuccessfully twice to gain access to Knight Island, where two violent serial murders occurred two decades apart. She gave up any hope of ever getting there until she finds out that the reality show Chicken Out will stage an event there. Maggie maneuvers her way onto the show with her partner being her friend lesbian police sketch artist Vivian Storm, a psychic bartender, who reluctantly agreed after the fact when she learns they will split a million dollars when they win.

Other teams vie with the two females for the prize, but almost immediately upon debarking one member of a duo of cooks is murdered and the boats to leave Knight Island destroyed. A killer is on the loose with more homicides. Maggie applies her forensic skills along with Vivian's sketches of what the victims' last saw before dying in an attempt to stop a brutal serial killer from adding them to the list.

This gruesome Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None Survivor thriller hooks the audience from start to finish seeing whether Holmes and Storm are left standing as elimination from this reality show is by death. The story line is graphic especially when Vivian sees what the dead saw; not sure how she lives with these nightmarish final pictures. Although too gory at times (unless you have the stomach of Vivian), the BAD LANDS is a tense thriller tale as Holmes investigates with Vivian as her able assistant.

Harriet Klausner