ABANDONED (CODY MCFADYEN)

Smoky Barret is a tiny four-foot-ten with a huge nasty scar on her face from an attack a few years before as a consequence of her job. For the past 12 years she has headed up a team of four, including herself, at the NCAVC (National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime) based in Quantico, Virginia. They're a special group called out to deal with the worst of the worst of the human race: child murderers, molesters, rapists, and the like.

Smoky lives with her boyfriend Tommy, a drop dead gorgeous Latin man who is an ex-secret service man, and her 13-year-old adopted daughter, Bonnie. Smoky and Tommy are in Hawaii for a team members beautiful outdoor wedding when suddenly squealing tires are heard and a woman is quickly shoved out of a car dressed only in a white nightgown. Now isn't it odd, or is it coincidence, that this woman would be dropped into the middle of a wedding attended by all FBI agents?

"A fingerprint check determines that she's been missing for nearly eight years. Her coldly efficient captor toyed with her mind and body, imprisoning her, depriving her of any contact with the outside world. As Smoky fits together the pieces of what remains of the victim's fractured life, a chilling picture emerges of a cerebral psychopath who doesn't take murder personally, never makes a mistake, follows his own sinister logic, and has set the perfect trap."

At one point, Smoky herself, becomes his captor and what happens in this story will blow your mind wide-open!! This was the most twisted, convoluted, page-turner I've read in quite some time. It's both thriller and mystery all rolled into one. You will physically feel the pressure building, your blood pressure will rise, you'll begin to sweat, chew on the bottom of your lip, and if you're reading, alone...your eyes will be flicking around your room. This novel was written with such confidence that it is almost blaring into your face. Don't miss this one, please!

May 3, 2011