The Hand That Feeds You

May 18, 2015
Writing under the pseudonym A.J. Rich, Amy Hempel (Reasons to Live) and Jill Ciment (Heroic Measures) team up in this toothless mystery about murderous dogs and a “victimologist turned victim.” Morgan is a master’s student in forensic psychology studying how victims are chosen by their attackers. She is engaged to a man named Bennett, whom she met while conducting an online experiment about sexual predators—a red flag if there ever was one. One day Morgan returns to her Williamsburg apartment to find Bennett fatally mauled, presumably by her three beloved rescue dogs, two pit-bull mutts and a Great Pyrenees. From this taut, eerie opening, the tale gradually loses its fierceness. Morgan begins to doubt whether her blood-covered hounds could be capable of such aggression, and her suspicions only increase when she discovers that Bennett was keeping some rather significant secrets. In search of answers about her lover’s hidden life and gruesome death, she also tries to prevent her dogs from being put down, which slows her investigation and any narrative momentum. With its focus on sociopathy and overt references to Cholderlos de Laclos’s masterpiece of erotic manipulation, Dangerous Liaisons, the novel has the makings of a penetrating psychological thriller. Unfortunately, neither the perpetually blindsided heroine nor the paper-thin villain has the depth to redeem this perfunctory, and outlandish, mystery.

May 1, 2015

Morgan Prager is a graduate student in criminal justice studying what makes a person a victim. She comes home from class to find her fiance Bennett's mauled corpse. Savagely attacked by her three dogs, Bennett is now unrecognizable. As Morgan struggles with discovering that her previously sweet dogs killed her fiance, she begins to discover irregularities in what Bennett told her and who he is actually was. Soon, Morgan uncovers his web of lies and is devastated to learn that she was not his only fiancee. She is determined to find out how she could have become a victim of someone who is increasingly looking like a sociopath. In her quest for the truth and to save her dogs, she enlists her brother, Steven, and his attorney friend Lawrence McKenzie; Billie, a volunteer at the animal shelter, joins the cause as well. With their help, Morgan hopes she can change her dogs' fate and uncover the truth about Bennett. VERDICT Author Rich's (the pseudonym of award-winning short story writer Amy Hempel and novelist Jill Ciment) gripping psychological thriller addresses our basic fears about becoming a victim. [See Prepub Alert, 1/25/15.]--Lynnanne Pearson, Skokie P.L., IL

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2015
Morgan Prager, a criminal justice grad student studying victim psychology, returns to her Brooklyn apartment to find the mutilated corpse of her fiance, Bennett, splayed across her bed and her beloved dogs covered in blood. Could this violent crime truly have been the work of the gentle Great Pyrenees she raised or the pit-bulls she rescued?With the dogs sent to a shelter for violent animals while the courts decide their fates, Morgan endeavors to learn the truth that will set her pets free. What she uncovers is a Machiavellian maze of deception and betrayal. Bennett is not her fiance's real name, nor is she his only lover. As she seeks his true identity, Morgan finds herself on a trail littered with the bodies of women just like herself, willing dupes in a sadistic game of bitterness and revenge. Rich is the pseudonym for acclaimed fiction writers and devoted animal lovers Jill Ciment (Act of God, 2015) and Amy Hempel (Collected Stories, 2006), who have created an emotionally and erotically charged thriller that vibrates with tension and passion.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)