by Lisa Gardner
From Goodreads:
Lisa Gardner, the New York Times bestselling author of Hide and Gone, draws us into the venomous mind games of her most terrifying killer yet.
Come into my parlor . . .
For Kimberly Quincy, FBI Special Agent, it all starts with a pregnant hooker. The story Delilah Rose tells Kimberly about her johns is too horrifying to be true—but prostitutes are disappearing, one by one, with no explanation, and no one but Kimberly seems to care.
Said the spider to the fly . . .
As a member of the Evidence Recovery Team, dead hookers aren’t exactly Kimberly’s specialty. The young agent is five months pregnant—she has other things to worry about than an alleged lunatic who uses spiders to do his dirty work. But Kimberly’s own mother and sister were victims of a serial killer. And now, without any bodies and with precious few clues, it’s all too clear that a serial killer has found the key to the perfect murder . . . or Kimberly is chasing a crime that never happened.
Kimberly’s caught in a web more lethal than any spider’s, and the more she fights for answers, the more tightly she’s trapped. What she doesn’t know is that she’s close—too close—to a psychopath who makes women’s nightmares come alive, and if he has his twisted way, it won’t be long before it’s time for Kimberly to . . .
My Thoughts: I've pretty much only read the D.D. Warren books by Gardner, so this was my first introduction to Kimberly and crew. Normally I try my best to read series in order, but last year I learned to unclench a bit and read freely. Say Goodbye is an excellent thriller, although the subject matter might keep some of you away.
FBI Special Agent Kimberly is expecting a baby with her husband Mac, when she gets a call about a pregnant hooker who claims to have information for her. Soon Kimberly is on the hunt for a suspected serial killer, unaware that she herself is a target. That alone would be pretty tame for a thriller, but Gardner also throws in kidnapping and child molestation. Although she's not graphic, it's never easy to read about young children getting abused in horrible ways. Kimberly's story is interwoven with the kidnapped teenage boy who lives with the serial killer, and Rita, a tough elderly lady trying to help a young boy who she assumes is from a bad home. At almost 90, Rita is pretty amazing. She works harder than I do and keeps a much tighter budget than I ever could- plus the interaction she has with the shop keeper is heart warming.
I don't know much background on Kimberly other than she has a rough relationship with her dad (think Sydney and Jack Bristow from Alias), a tragic past (mother and sister both killed), and while she has a wonderful husband in Mac, their relationship is under the strain of her pregnancy. When she teams up with GBI agent Sal, there's also the added stress of dealing with her attraction to him.
Gardner's books are always page turners, and this one was no exception. Each chapter started off with spider facts (the serial killer is obsessed with spiders) which was pretty neat. Say Goodbye had me alternating between feeling a lot less creeped out by spiders and being a lot more terrified of some of them (I don't foresee any future trips to South America any time soon). I really want to go back and start this series from the beginning. I was just in the mood for a thriller, and I'm so glad I finally picked this one from my pile of tbr books. I tend to crave thrillers when my life feels a bit out of control... although I'd probably be better off reading fairy tales and romance novels.
Say Goodbye gets a Midnight Book Rating of:
The book gets a Midnight Cover Rating of:
The cover is okay, it fits a thriller book which for some reason always have women's eyes on the cover. Hmm...
