Tara Moss, Covet

Covet

Tara Moss

Leisure, May 2007, $7.99, 369 pp.

ISBN 0843958480

It has been eighteen months since Ed Brown the "Stiletto Killer" of nine women was caught after he kidnapped and tortured Canadian model Makedde Vanderwall. All the women he butchered wore stiletto heels like his mother used to before the incident he caused that put her in a wheelchair because she no longer had legs. Mak is leaving Canada and heading to Australia to be the star witness for the prosecution since she was the only victim who survived Ed's torture.

She testifies on the first day of the trial but in the middle of her testimony Ed Brown confesses that he is guilty on all counts of murder. In exchange for certain privileges, he leads the police to a place where he says a victim lies that the police never discovered. It is a trap and when an incendiary device explodes, Ed escapes. Makedde is scared out of her wits because she knows Brown is fixated on her. She hops on the first plane to Hong Kong for a modeling assignment. Ed, with the help of the prison guard he befriended, follows her and the two come together in a confrontation in which only one of them is left standing.

Tara Moss is Australia's answer to Patricia Cornwell. Her characters are multi-faceted and run the gamut from pure good to pure evil. The scenes in which Ed Brown is the prime player are the most interesting because readers get to see how his twisted mind thinks. Makedde is a beautiful amazon with a high IQ who runs from danger that makes her even more believable than the rest of the characters because she knows Ed Brown is too dangerous for her to be on the same continent with. This is a fascinating crime thriller that contains a feeling of ever-spreading danger.

Harriet Klausner