Hush
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Average rating4.5
Few serial killers penned by suspense writers today are as warped or as fully realized as the Madonna Murderer, who preys on newborn baby boys and their unwed mothers. As if the crime itself isn't bad enough, the killer leaves a musical snow globe that plays "Hush, Little Baby" in the infant's crib as his calling card. It has been nearly two decades since Ivy Dunlap and her infant son were victimized by the Madonna Murderer. Unbeknownst to the killer, Ivy survived the assault. Her baby didn't. Now a respected criminal psychologist, Ivy is called into service by the Chicago P.D. when the killer resurfaces after 16 years of dormancy. Her personal interest in the case takes on a sharper edge when she learns that her partner, Detective Max Irving, has a son named Ethan who is the same age her child would have been had he survived. When Ivy tries to rattle the Madonna Murderer by publishing a "dead-baby letter" in the newspaper, the killer becomes more daring; he befriends Ethan, sends Ivy a chunk of his skin bearing a tattoo and expands his profile of victims. Although some readers may be turned off by the novel's graphic nature, a wealth of procedural detail, a heart-thumping finale and two scarred but indelible protagonists make this a first-rate debut.
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The deranged serial killer/grizzled detective/psychological profiler is hardly a new genre in the world of thrillers and suspense. What sets one apart from another is the depth of the characters and how adept the author is at getting the reader into the head of the serial killer. Anne Frasier it batting a thousand on this one.
Ivy Dunlap now lives in Canada when she gets a call from an old acquaintance in Chicago with a cryptic message: “It's happening again”. ‘It' is the resurfacing of The Madonna Murderer, someone Ivy has intimate knowledge of from 16 years past. How does Abraham Sinclair know Ivy? He worked the case when she, the soul survivor, was assaulted by the serial killer.
Ivy has had one thing on her mind for 16 years: Kill the man responsible for killing her newborn and changed the entire scope of her life forever.
Enter Max Irving. Single father, one of the best on the force..grizzled veteran. Almost sounds cliched but his back story is as interesting as Ivy's when considering his adopted son, Ethan, was born by a woman Max only knew for several weeks. She died and Max adopted him and has treated him like his own son ever since. Ethan is 16 now and Max is waging a personal war of attrition:that of dealing with a teenage son who wants to know about his real father.
It's that depth of characterization that really sets this book apart from other thrillers that follow a similar formula. Hush is filled with many great characters, even the bit players having their own emotional baggage that made me interested in them, even if they had minimal page time.
Of course the serial killer is super deranged. Convinced that he's saving people and is acting righteously. But when the point of view shifts over to him Frasier makes it chillingly apparent how deranged the inner workings of his mind are.
I really can't say enough good things about this book. It flows great, is paced fantastically, has just enough police procedure in it but not enough to bog the story down in technicalities and jargon. The character interactions are believable and the subplots are great.
I've been reading through my backlog of kindle downloads recently (Pilfering as many new, recommended, free and deal e books as I can) going from author to author but I think I'm going to spend a little more time in Anne Frasier's neck of the woods before moving on to the to be read pile, hush was that good.
