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In the third book in her outstanding series, Jan Burke has once again written a winner. The plot is carefully detailed, with twists and turns that will leave you guessing until very near the final pages. The pace and rhythm of this novel are relentless and crafted to draw the reader along. I like the details. Drawing on her background in newspapering, she rewards us with the a look inside the sometimes thorny issues of newspaper cooperation with an ongoing police investigation, and treats us to a palatable lesson in Greek and Roman mythology in the bargain. Thanatos, ancient Greek for Death, contacts Irene Kelly, newspaper reporter for the fictional Las Piernas News Express. Thanatos calls Irene his Cassandra. In oblique ways he threatens to murder Clio. A prank? As Burke reveals, every newspaper reporter with a byline gets crank calls and weird mail. Is this another? When a local college history instructor is found brutally murdered, the note can no longer be dismissed. Then when notes and telephone calls continue, Irene feels threatened and yet compelled to pursue the mad killer with a classical penchant, regardless of her personal danger. While she pursues Thanatos, mounting evidence points to an ultimate confrontation between Thanatos and Cassandra. Kelly continues. Her husband to be, police detective Frank Harriman, understandably takes a dim view of her efforts to expose herself to danger while trying to find the killer. Burke does a good job of moving the story along and at the same time exploring other levels of conflict; the tension between Frank and Irene, for example, which is both personal and between cop and reporter. The characters have dimension, they always act credibly, and the explosive finale will satisfy all her readers, who should be growing in number. Editor's note: This is a review of the earlier paperback. A new edition is due out in December at $6.99 and that is the cover shown above (ISBN 0380725568)
Reviewed by Carl Brookins, June 2002
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