Imola

July 1, 2009
In this sequel to 2008s Agnes Hahn, Agnes, the woman whose alter identity, Lilin, is a serial killer, is a patient at Imola, a rather disreputable mental institution. Jason Powers, the newspaper reporter who helped apprehend Agnes/Lilin, is still transfixed by the beautiful but deadly woman. When Agnes (or is it Lilin?) escapes from Imola and goes on a murderous rampage, is it love that draws her to Jason, or is it revenge? This is a very good thriller, gritty and unsettling in a Keith Ablow kind of way (it also shares some themes with Jonathan Nasaws When She Was Bad, 2007, about murderous multiple personalities, and with Chelsea Cains Sweetheart, 2008, about the attraction between a charismatic killer and her pursuer). The plot is smartly constructed, and the characters, if not quite as sharply realized as we might like, are still interestingly complex. A very good, genre-bending mix of thriller and horror.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)