What Doesn't Kill Her

April 13, 2015
In Thriller Award–finalist Norton’s riveting sequel to 2013’s The Edge of Normal, U.C. Berkeley student Reeve LeClaire, who was kidnapped and held captive in Seattle for four years as a teen, is yanked back into her past after her abductor, Daryl Wayne Flint, escapes from the Washington State psychiatric hospital where he’s serving his sentence. Believing she knows Daryl better than any of the authorities and feeling responsible for finding Daryl before he can hurt anyone else, she returns to Seattle, despite her family’s adamant advice not to put herself in jeopardy once again. To apprehend Daryl, she reconnects with retired FBI special agent Milo Bender, whom she fondly remembers from the time he was assigned to stay with her during Daryl’s trial. Meanwhile, Daryl, who has been obsessed with Reeve throughout his hospital stay, sets off on a rampage of murder and kidnapping, until events reach their climax in an exciting and suspenseful conclusion. Agent: Liza Dawson, Liza Dawson Associates.

April 15, 2015
A kidnapping victim must use her insight into her former captor to catch him after he escapes from a psychiatric hospital. Reeve LeClaire, nee Regina, earned herself the nickname Edgy Reggie for her harsh look at the trial of her kidnapper, Daryl Wayne Flint. Four years of captivity and abuse took the vulnerability out of Reeve and made her strong enough to watch as Flint was sentenced to Olshaker Psychiatric Hospital rather than prison. Years later, Reeve has worked through some of her bottled-up feelings by helping a fellow victim (The Edge of Normal, 2013), and she's moved on to start college in San Francisco. She's concentrated on what's hardest-trusting people-and has even managed to make a few new friends when her world is upended once more by the news that Flint has escaped the psych hospital. Knowing that she has a special connection to Flint, or rather, that he does to her, Reeve is drawn back to Seattle to try to understand what's happened. The FBI doesn't want her help, but when Flint kills just 24 hours after his escape, they have no choice but to see how important her knowledge is. Reeve, already wary of trusting others, has no interest in working with the feds, but her value to the case emboldens her to ask for Agent Milo Bender to help with her investigation. Reeve knows Bender as a kind face from her childhood rescue days, and though early retirement has put him out of commission, this particular case and his loyalty to Reeve make him willing to step up. Going on pure intuition, the two try to match Flint's motivation to a greater plan and figure him out before he can get to them. In spite of allowing the second entry in the series to tap into emotional back stories that might better have been saved for later, Norton writes smart characters and cleverly leaves herself room for a sequel.

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January 1, 2015
After coauthoring the No. 1 "New York Times" best-selling "Perfect Victim", Norton leapt into the fiction arena with the award-winning "The Edge of Normal". Here, "Normal"'s Reeve LeClaire learns that the man who held her captive for four years has escaped from Olshaker Psychiatric Hospital.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 1, 2015
Former kidnap victim Reeve LeClaire puts herself at risk again in this high-octane sequel to Norton's blockbuster fiction debut, The Edge of Normal (2013). When her kidnapper, psychopathic Daryl Wayne Flint, escapes from his Seattle-area mental institution, Reeve correctly senses where he will go first. As Flint carries out escape plans A, B, and C, formulated by his late coconspirator in crime, Walter Wertz, Reeve gets involved both for the sake of Flint's future victims and for herself, so that her four years of captivity and abuse will count for something. Now a student at UC Berkeley, she returns to Seattle and tracks down intuitive Miles Bender, the retired FBI agent who was so empathetic after her ordeal. Together they ignore FBI naysayers as they go after Flint, who's committing murders along his way as he tries to recapture Reeve, whose skin he loves. Norton ups the emotional ante by including Bender's family, notably his son JD, who instructs Reeve in self-protection tactics and offers hints of something more. But what Norton does best is to skillfully ratchet up suspense to a breathtaking climax, with a moving coda from the past. A nonstop thriller.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)