KILL FOR ME - Karen Rose
Grand Central Publishing (Hardcover)
ISBN: 978-0446-51030-1
February 2009
Thriller Fiction

Present Day Dutton, Georgia

KILL FOR ME is another spellbinder by Karen Rose that defies brief summarizing, so I'll depart from RRT's usual format once more and give you random musings.

After a brief prologue set six months previously in which a teenage girl is lured into capture through an Internet chat room, KILL FOR ME moves rapidly with the whole thing taking place in less than one week. The scene changes back and forth among the points of view of the victims, the villains, and the good guys. Some of the villains' identities become known early on, but some we are left guessing about until the end. They are an unsavory bunch, to put it mildly, who traffic in sex slaves whom they term "depreciable assets." Some of those assets depreciate into corpses.

Luke Papadopolous, the hero of the piece, you've met already if you've read SCREAM FOR ME. Luke is an agent of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (the GBI) working out of Atlanta. He's temporarily partnered with Agent Daniel Vartanian (hero of SCREAM FOR ME) on a case involving brutal murders of women near Daniel's hometown of Dutton. This case is reminiscent of the rapes and murders committed thirteen years ago by a group of teenage boys, including Daniel's brother Simon. Some of them are still unknown.

The knowledge of Simon's identity may spoil the earlier plot a bit, but it's necessary to know that Daniel's sister Susannah, our heroine, was also a victim in those early years. That is what brings Susanna back to Dutton from New York City, where she is a successful prosecutor in the District Attorney's office. With her help, Luke and Daniel uncover evidence that could prove the connection between the cases and identify some of the people who got away before. You will like and empathize with Susannah, who carries a lot of guilt on her shoulders because she failed to tell about her attack when it might have saved other victims, but she was very young and without support from her cold parents. Luke carries a load as heavy as Susannah's, though for reasons concerned with the horrors of his job at the GBI. They will be good for each other.

KILL FOR ME is closely connected in time and cast with Ms. Rose's DIE FOR ME, a Perfect 10 of a book released in September 2007, and SCREAM FOR ME from May 2008. Though KILL FOR ME can stand alone, it would be more enjoyable and easier to follow if read after the others. There are references in KILL FOR ME to characters and happenings in the other books that it would be useful to be familiar with. It would also help to keep track of all the characters; one never knows who might prove to be important and who not.

KILL FOR ME puts a finish to the Dutton, Georgia setting, I believe, but I hope for more stories centered on the GBI and some of the other good guys.

Jane Bowers