Hell

October 10, 2011
At the outset of Norman’s contrived fifth Sam Becket thriller (after 2010’s Caged), a carefully wrapped human heart is found floating in the African-American Miami detective’s swimming pool. Sam’s Caucasian psychologist wife, Grace, immediately suspects they’re being targeted by her stepbrother, Jerome Cooper (aka Cal the Hater), a psychopathic racist who kidnapped their infant son two years earlier in Caged. Sam’s inquiries as part of the Miami police’s Violent Crimes Unit take on a new urgency after another well-preserved heart turns up in a luxury hotel’s pool and a third is deposited in the Beckets’ bathtub. Norman does a good job presenting Sam’s extended multiethnic family, whose members are particularly supportive of Grace as she faces jail time for a crime she committed under extreme stress. But a convoluted plot, a snarled skein of interwoven relationships, and a wildly improbable conclusion make this a less than satisfying read.

November 15, 2011
A gruesome murderer stalks a tight-knit family of detectives, bringing them to their own personal hell. Norman's latest take on Detective Sam Becket (Shimmer, 2009, etc.) echoes earlier stories of the family: Becket and his family appear to be fighting off the unwanted attentions of psychotic serial killer Cal the Hater, aka Jerome Cooper. Cal's M.O. appears to have changed only slightly while maintaining its grisly edge. The tale begins by emphasizing the Becket family's cloyingly wholesome methods for dealing with his madness, then takes an unexpected turn when Sam's wife Grace goes beyond desperate measures to protect herself. Suddenly, Sam's playing a defensive role, one for which he's neither trained nor quite prepared. With the entire preachy Becket clan hunkered down together and Sam struggling to play bad cop against Cal, it's hard to find a sympathetic character in the fray, especially as some of the stakes for some of the suspense sequences are too low to encourage much buy-in to the cast members. Diehard fans will appreciate the ending, which promises another Becket mystery coming soon. Not exactly the high point of this series. But Norman still keeps up the pace as she puts familiar characters through their paces.

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December 1, 2011

Lock the doors and think smartly: serial killer Cal the Hater is back (Shimmer), terrorizing detective Sam Becket's family and making their lives a living hell. Seriously psychologically scary stuff.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2011
Pity poor Miami-based cop Sam Becket and his child psychologist wife, Grace. It's been only a year since they and their toddler son were terrorized by Grace's psychopathic stepbrother, Jerome Cooper, aka Cal the Hater. Their child was kidnapped, and Sam and Grace, imprisoned by Jerome, nearly died. Naturally, they were relieved when he died in an explosion. Imagine their shock, then, when he reappears, alive and welland not only that. He comes back into their lives most insidiously, taunting them and their extended family, spying on them, and following Grace. Sam decides to hide the entire family in Grace's sister's fortress-like home. But life must go on, and when Grace is called to help a young patient deal with a terrible anxiety attack, she can't know the situation will end in a life-changing tragedy. There's no doubt that Norman comes up trumps here, with a chilling, suspenseful, keep-'em-guessing plot. The only slight flaw is writing that on occasion seems a bit overegged. Overall, a gripping thriller that will fit nicely into most collections.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)