ABANDONED

Author: Cody McFadyen

Genre: Thriller, Series #4

Published: 2009

Personal Rating: 4/5 (very good)

Yearly Count: 112

Please Note: While being thankful for the opportunity to receive and read this ARC, I feel the need to post its description. However, in my opinion there is usually too much disclosed. Read at your own discretion.

Product Description:

He doesn’t kill for thrills, for sex, or even for power.
It’s far more twisted than that….

Cody McFadyen, acclaimed author of The Darker Side, The Face of Death, and Shadow Man, delivers this shocking new thriller that brings to light a psychopath unlike any we’ve ever seen—a killer who thrives in absolute darkness and doesn’t derive pleasure from the kill. And only one woman has the ability to see him coming…even if it’s already too late to stop her own murder.

For FBI Special Agent Smoky Barrett, the wedding of one of their own was cause for celebration. Until a woman staggered down the aisle, incoherent, emaciated, head shaved, and wearing only a white nightgown.

No one knows who she is or where she’s come from—or why she’s chosen to appear in a church filled with law enforcement agents. Then a fingerprint check determines that the woman has been missing for nearly eight years—that once she was someone’s wife, someone’s mother…and a cop. Imprisoning her in a dark cell, depriving her of any contact with the outside world, her enigmatic captor was a man she didn’t know and who seldom spoke, who punished her only when she failed to follow his most basic instructions designed to keep her alive.

Cold, businesslike, seemingly indifferent to his victims, he’s a predator with an M.O. as terrifyingly inscrutable as any Smoky has ever encountered. As she fits together the pieces of what remains of his victim’s fractured life, a chilling picture emerges of a killer every bit as calculating, masterful, and professional as Smoky and the team she leads—a professional psychopath who doesn’t take murder personally and never makes a mistake.

There’s a reason he let one of his victims go free. And by the time Smoky pierces the darkness of his twisted mind, it may cost her more than she can bear to lose to escape. For a trap snapped closed the moment she took this case too much to heart.

I exploded with delight when I realized that the package in my hands contained the latest ARC from one of my favorite authors! I literally jumped up and down and squealed like a little girl. What fun! I even set a book aside, so I could get to it immediately.

In general, it was very good. However . . . I had a huge problem with a portion of the book that caused me to feel offended. Whether warranted or not, I felt that way, and it put a damper on my reading for a short time. While I did get back on track, a distasteful feeling lingered. I understand that it is viewed as a good thing when an author can evoke deep emotions from a reader. They, in essence, have done their job. Unfortunately, the feelings I had converted into dislike. I know very well that Cody's style is very bold and can make my skin crawl, but I never felt this way before. Who knows, maybe I just added another feather to his cap. :)

On a better note, the plot in and of itself was complex and therefore a difficult one to solve. I enjoyed hanging with Smoky and the team as they dug their heels in to make some sense out of their present case. Despite my uncomfortable feelings, I think I would read anything written by this man. Even in the most shocking or scary scenes, he has a way with words that keep me on the edge of my seat or just plain glued to the page. This one was no different, but not a favorite. (It's the first one that didn't make my Best Reads list.) However, that has not kept me from waiting with bated breathe for #5.

My thanks go to Cody and Bantam Dell Publishing Group for sending me the ARC! It will be released on October 27, 2009.

(This was not posted until October 23 at the publisher's request. I put it back in the order in which I read it.)