“Doctors as a new detective duo – what a concept! This one will leave you breathless!” ~ Readers Favorite“A girl stumbling off the curb. He almost didn’t see her…” A beautiful young TV star, Jody Merrill, dies mysteriously and police are stumped. They are even more at a loss when the grisly remains of yet another actress, Jody’s co-star, are found. Detectives request the help of doctors Jill … the help of doctors Jill Raney and David Levine, police friends and detectives on their own. For Jill and David this is personal; they are heartbroken since both murdered young women were their friends. Furiously they resolve to find the killer: to skirt the law as they always do in cases of sex crimes, child abuse and murder; helping where cops’ hands are tied (“No warrant? No problem!”), or in ways that police forensics never imagined.
The killer, capable of unspeakable savagery, must commit more murders in order to hide…possibly behind the glitzy cover of Show Biz Hell. As Jody Merrill called it, “That gorgeous, sparkly bubble that closes you in, bloats your ego in some weird, alternate universe where you lose all bearings, lose yourself. Fame is unhealthy.”
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I love reading novels that are part of a series, and at times I do it out of the prescribed order, simply to learn if they stand on their own. Embryo 5 does. It is a story where each character is endowed with strong motives. Gut emotion, gut reactions. For the killer it is malignant jealousy and a misguided sense of being betrayed; for doctors Jill Raney and David Levine it is love and caring for the victims of grisly crimes: Jody Merrill, beautiful young starlet, and her co-star.
The author, J. A. Schneider, has distilled the richness of French literature, with which she is well versed, into her thriller. Fascinated with medicine and forensic science, she uses keen observation skills to show you the physical changes in appearance and behavior of her characters. “She closed her hers, her body sagging against his, and he noticed that she was feverish with skin clammy and sweaty, which was odd — it didn’t connect with assault. Drugs on top of rape?”
Schneider builds the suspense using an assortment of tools, such as foreshadowing, with exceptional skill. “When the ambulance surged away they peeled after it, never guessing their role in the storm to come.” Her engaging style often includes staccato one-word rhythms, capturing the way her characters observe events before they have time to wrap them in fully formed sentences. “Lights. Cops. EMT’s swarming, mashing flower beds.” Together with brief sensual descriptions, such as “They didn’t want to hear the crunch over gravel as the gurneys bumped away,” the writing puts you in the skin of the characters in a manner that complements the fast moving action.
Five stars
I’ve read all four of the previous books in this series, and it’s been a real roller coaster ride of suspense, medical shenanigans, and relationship building. Book one started the romance between Raney and Levine, and gave us Jesse, the miracle baby. The relationship became a marriage, and the marriage became a family. All of this while some seriously deranged bad guys added that touch of adrenalin that kept me furiously turning pages.
SILVER GIRL is the first in the series to be a complex murder mystery. We are not faced with a madman trying to take out as many people as possible, we have two dead girls, and the need to find their murderer.
I love to find an author still finding his or her voice. I am always honored to find myself tagging along for the ride. I don’t care if you are Stephen King or someone totally unknown, you have to start somewhere, and if you keep going, there has to be development. J. A. Schneider is developing her characters by making them more and more human from book to book. She is also honing the skills of mystery writers everywhere. I think she does a great job in SILVER GIRL of making you think through the possible suspects without giving too much away at any one time. There is definitely more whodunit here than adrenalin while still making the pages seem to turn themselves.
I don’t know about y/ou, but I read books for a variety of reasons. I read to learn something new, to enjoy the dread of horror, but mostly, I read for the pure enjoyment of the stories and characters. Without giving anything away, there is a brilliant piece of misdirection in this book that pretty much made my day.
As much as I want to convince you to read SILVER GIRL, in all fairness, you have to read the four that came before to fully appreciate what is happening. These are all perfect books to take to the beach, read on a plane, or just for some time alone with a good book.