Blood of Saints

June 20, 2016
Beaumont’s convoluted, melodramatic fifth Sabrina Vaughn novel (after Waiting in Darkness) takes the former homicide cop from her remote Montana ranch to Yuma, Ariz., to chase down a serial killer who’s managed to implicate her in his gruesome crimes. Since Sabrina is supposed to be dead (at the hands of her stepbrother, Wade Bauer, no less), she disguises herself and is joined by Courtney Church, an assassin from her past. Meanwhile, a killer is creating his own bloody narrative in flesh and bone, with an eye on Sabrina. Chapters quickly flip between Sabrina and Courtney’s investigation and the killer’s point of view. In addition, Sabrina’s got Wade’s voice in her head, and it’s never clear whether this is real or Sabrina’s imagination. The killer’s MO is gimmicky, there are too many red herrings, and the weight of the muddled, busy plot smothers character development. In the end, things tie up too neatly for a character with such a complicated life.

June 15, 2016
Four years after faking her own death and vanishing into a wilderness fortress with her lover, professional killer Michael O'Shea, ex-homicide cop Sabrina Vaughn comes out of hiding when a monstrous figure from her past makes her an offer she can't refuse.Back when she was Melissa Walker, Sabrina was abducted, tortured, and repeatedly raped by her half brother, Wade Bauer. Thinking that she'd killed him, she and Michael--taking an indefinite leave from FSS, the dark security firm run by his friend Benjamin Shaw's father, Livingston Shaw--went into hiding deep in Montana. But now she's flushed out by the news that a serial killer whose M.O. seems an awful lot like Wade's has claimed a new set of victims in Melissa's hometown of Yuma, Arizona--and that Melissa's DNA has been found on one of the bodies. Submitting to a conveniently effective makeover designed to fool several key parties who once knew Melissa, Sabrina returns to Yuma, posing as an FBI agent partnered with the equally phony Church, Livingston Shaw's "pet sociopath," to consult with Detective Will Santos, who'd been assigned to Melissa's case nearly 20 years ago. The killer they're tracking seems to have been personally trained by Wade--and seems to choose victims who'd miraculously survived some earlier outrage or illness or near-death experience. Baroque plot complications abound and corpses pop up as bountifully as discounted groceries at supermarket displays before Sabrina finally survives her own latest brush with death to put paid for good to Wade--or so it seems--and pluck his murderous successor as if from a galaxy far, far away. As in her striking debut (Carved in Darkness, 2013), Beaumont ladles on the overwrought prose and tougher-than-thou attitudinizing. None of it is good for you, but you'll want to read it anyway.

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August 1, 2016

In the aftermath of the events of Promises To Keep, former homicide detective Sabrina Vaughan (not her real name) has found peace, hidden in Montana, with her assassin boyfriend, Michael O'Shea, and the two children she rescued. When a killer emerges in Yuma, AZ, who fits the profile of the man who kidnapped, raped, and tortured her for months in 1998, Sabrina travels there to aid the police in their dragnet. Aware that she might be exposing her idyllic new life to people who would like to see her and Michael dead, Sabrina enlists the aid of other dangerous people to exact her vengeance. VERDICT With its raw and vividly drawn characters, this thrill-a-minute adrenaline ride will keep Donald Westlake readers on their edge of their seats.

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