Susan Arnout Smith The Timer Game

The Timer Game

Susan Arnout Smith

St. Martin's, Jan 2008, $24.95

ISBN: 9780312368333

Though she refuses to tell anyone what happened in Guatemala, whatever did motivated Grace Descanso to quit as a pediatric cardiologist. She turned to alcohol as a means of forgetting, but got her act together to raise her infant daughter Katie, who is about to turn five years old. Single mom Grace lives in San Diego where she works as a crime scene technician.

At a murder scene, an attacker kills her colleagues, calls her names, and reminds her that Spikeman is coming for her. When he comes at her with a knife, she grabs the gun of dying rookie police officer Chip Page and kills the assailant. Soon afterward someone kidnaps Katie; the frantic mom assumes Spikeman is taunting her with enigmatic clues that take her to the Center for BioChimera biomedical research institution and hospital. Desperate she also asks her former lover reporter Mac McGuire to help her save her Katie.

This is an exciting suspense thriller that readers who enjoy solving clues will appreciate the mad dash to uncover the medical tie between San Diego and Guatemala and who is Spikeman; some armchair sleuths will figure that out as the link is obviously Grace. Fans will enjoy following the harassed Grace and Mac as they play in Spikeman?s twenty-four hour treasure hunt with the prize if they succeed in winning the contest being a still alive Katie.

Harriet Klausner