The Stranger You Seek

Starred review from August 1, 2011
Williams makes her debut with an explosive, unpredictable, and psychologically complex thriller that turns crime fiction clichés inside out. Sarcastic and fast-thinking independent investigator Keye Street, a Chinese-American whose alcoholism got her booted from her FBI profiling job four years earlier, makes a living serving subpoenas, tracking down bail jumpers, and tackling the oddest of odd jobs. When a friend from the Atlanta PD calls her in to help track down a mysterious serial killer, Keye soon finds herself battling past ghostsâfrom her murdered grandparents to an unscrupulous former employerâwhile attempting to protect herself and her loved ones from a sadistic mastermind whose games become increasingly deadly. A sweet "friends first" romance, a diverse cast, and doses of humor enhance the relentless hairpin action. Those looking for a strong female protagonist not a sexpot and as intelligent, tough, and flawed as any male thriller hero will be richly rewarded.

August 1, 2011

A suspenseful tale of a clever crime-solver who gets a little too close to the action.

Lt. Aaron Rauser needs help catching what seems to be a new serial killer in his Atlanta stomping ground. He knows that the woman for the job is his old friend and crime-solving compatriot Keye Street. Keye's not the kind of woman you mess around with, and while the folks on the force don't like that she's freelancing in their department, there's not much they can do about it. Keye was on track to be a well-respected FBI profiler before an inconvenient addiction to booze got in the way. Now that she's back on her feet, this tough and whip-smart investigator has opened her own small-time business. Although chasing bail jumpers keeps Keye and her hacker sidekick Neil in modest money, hunting down the deranged psychopath the Atlanta papers have dubbed the Wishbone Killer is just Keye's piece of pie. The trouble is that the closer Keye seems to get to Wishbone, the more the killer seems to know about her: her thoughts, her feelings and even a few things she's barely admitted to herself. As the action shifts from seemingly random events to targeted, graphic and brutal acts of violence, Keye is thrust from the role of hunter to hunted.

Williams (Club Twelve, 1994, etc.) creates a frightening and occasionally witty novel, perfect for those who can sleep with one eye open. Think Mary Higgins Clark with an edge.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

August 1, 2011
There's something compelling about a damaged PI who fights her own personal demons while hunting for a serial killer. Keye Street, a thirtysomething Asian American who witnessed the murders of her grandparents when she was five, is a divorced recovering alcoholic who started her own company after being fired as an FBI profiler. But she's skilled and intuitive enough that her best friend, Aaron Rauser, Atlanta homicide cop, asks for her help in finding the media-dubbed Wishbone Killer, who leaves seemingly unrelated victims brutally stabbed, bitten, and sometimes sexually mutilated. As the murders multiply, alcohol beckons to Street, particularly when she and Rauser get taunting e-mails from the killer and are in increasing danger themselves. Williams, author of the Madison McGuire paperback mysteries published in the early 1990s, has the makings of a winning series here, with Bantam set to publish the next two Keye Street books. This is a character-driven, nonstop thriller with flashes of wit and romance that builds to a harrowing climax; fans of the genre will want to get in at the start.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)