Shane Gericke Blown Away

Blown Away

Shane Gericke

Pinnacle, May 2006, $6.99

ISBN: 0786018135

In Naperville, an affluent suburb of Chicago, while jogging, rookie police officer Emily Thompson thinks nothing of seeing the headless bodies of a goose and two ducks. Later that same day she is at the scene of a dead woman in a rented car possessing a card with Emily's name on it. Emily and her superiors believe the woman committed suicide. When she returns home, the heads of the goose and two ducks are in her mailbox, her business cards in their mouths.

Her bosses take it as a threat and warn Emily to be careful. That night she visits the library where a naked teen has an envelope for her, a birthday card telling her that her real presents are in the library. A dead man is found in one of the chairs making it obvious a serial killer is on the prowl with the ultimate objective being killing Emily on her birthday which is just a few days away. The culprit is someone who knows Emily but she has no idea who hates her so; unless she can figure out who it is, she will die because this is a brilliant murderer who never gives up.

Nobody reading BLOWN AWAY would believe this is Shane Gericke's debut novel because it is better than most police procedurals written today. There are plenty of action and chase scenes but it the amazing character development that makes this book worthy of an award nomination. Readers get to know the men and women in blue and what they face every day on the job. This is the ultimate chilling cat and mouse game in which the more the audience learns about the UNSUB, the more they want to see him locked away (preferably in a coffin).

Harriet Klausner