A Thriller Award winner, Best Paperback Original Novel.For three years, Detective Jude Fontaine was kept from the outside world. Held in an underground cell, her only contact was with her sadistic captor, and reading his face was her entire existence. Learning his every line, every movement, and every flicker of thought is what kept her alive.After her experience with isolation and torture, she … isolation and torture, she is left with a fierce desire for justice—and a heightened ability to interpret the body language of both the living and the dead. Despite colleagues’ doubts about her mental state, she resumes her role at Homicide. Her new partner, Detective Uriah Ashby, doesn’t trust her sanity, and he has a story of his own he’d rather keep hidden. But a killer is on the loose, murdering young women, so the detectives have no choice: they must work together to catch the madman before he strikes again. And no one knows madmen like Jude Fontaine.
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A good book to read on a cold wintry night. excellent story line with strong character development. Provides a scary insight on a kidnap victim’s response to imprisonment.
The Body Reader by Anne Frasier is quite a tense book! From the very beginning it had me on edge and it didn’t let up until the end! Wow, talk about suspense! I will definitely have to follow if this becomes a series….loved it.
Narration was perfect too!
This is an outstanding action mystery. Jude Fontaine was a homicide detective who was kidnapped one day while out running. After 3 years, everyone had given her up for dead, while she rotted in a tiny, dark cell, tortured by her captor. Her 3 years with nothing at all to focus on but the most minute expressions and gestures of her captor left her with an amazing ability to interpret body language. One night, she was finally able to escape and get help. Fast forward four months, and she’s still traumatized and “odd”, but she’s been allowed to return to the police force and is working cases where she insists, on the basis of body language and muscle movements, that she can interpret things no one else sees. The enduring question becomes is she too traumatized, too crazy, to continue working? Or is she actually able to see things that others can’t, in the frozen muscles of a dead body?
The other story lines involve missing and/or dead girls, whether or not Jude’s father actually killed her mother or was it an accident, and what’s going on with this OTHER girl we hear from periodically, who is also being kept and tortured in a tiny dark cell. The book is very well written, with finely drawn characters and tons of action. The relationships and reactions are realistic, and the question of can-she or can’t-she is complex and keeps you guessing until the end. As far as I can tell, there is no sequel, and that makes me very sad!
Did not expect to read non-stop when I first opened this book, but that’s exactly what I did. A little darker and more graphic than what I normally prefer, but nothing was gratuitous for shock value, and it all worked perfectly with the story. Lots of unexpected twists too. For some reason, it reminded me of the Orphan X television series as I read–but no sci-fi elements, just really great characters. Will definitely be looking for more in this series.
I really enjoyed this book for the most part, and will read more in this series. I liked the main character Jude Fontaine, a lot, as well as her detective partner. I did find the resolution to the mystery unsatisfactory, with a few extra threads added in too late and not properly resolved or even relevant, whereas they should have been significant. I felt that maybe this author had a big workload and got a bit rushed trying to wrap the book up. But overall this was a great read that kept me turning the pages.
Can Jude Overcome Her Horrible Experience And Become Herself Again
First, let me explain why I decided to read this book. I had read the third book in this series, which I received from NetGalley. I enjoyed reading that novel so much I purchased the first two novels in the series. This is the first novel in the series, and I was not disappointed.
The novel opens with the heroine, Detective Jude Fontaine, escaping after being locked in a cell in the basement of a house and used as a sex slave for the past three years. Upon getting to the street, she stops a cab, and before the cab driver could say no, she convinces him with the gun to take her home. Upon arrival, she knocks on the door and imagines her boyfriend passionately embracing her and welcoming her back. She discovers her boyfriend with a new girlfriend. She is devastated and only one other part of her previous life is left. She walks to the Minneapolis Police Department where she showed up, in a knit cap, heavy canvas jacket, boots, a smell of years of no personal hygiene, and a gun. The only Detective, Uriah Ashby, left in the station wanted nothing to do with a delusional homeless woman until he was told that her name is Jude Fontaine. Uriah never met Jude but he knew of her, a missing detective who was presumed dead. Compared to pictures of her she appears much older and with white hair not brown. She also knew much personal details of the squad room that could only be from someone who worked there. After telling how she escaped, she was taken to the hospital.
The novel proceeds as Detective Uriah investigates her case and as Jude tries to put her life back together to include returned to the homicide squad. She succeeds and is assigned to Uriah as his partner. Their first case is an apparent suicide by drowning. From here there are plenty of twists, turns and major bombs in her case as a victim and in those cases she is investigating. These investigations become very personal and test Jude’s ability to act professionally. Jude also, now has some new abilities that help her and confuse her partner at times, especially one that led to the title of this novel. My attention was captured early and kept locked throughout the entire novel.
The B-storyline also is rich. In the beginning Uriah learns much about Jude’s personality and how it has changed from before her abduction to her escaping. This continues throughout the entire novel. The strength of Jude’s character is illustrated by her determined effort to be reinstated as a detective and her perseverance once reinstated. Uriah also has an extensive B-storyline. His life changed with the suicide of his wife, and this fact affects how he interacts with others. Now with a new and possibly unstable partner he is greatly challenged. These characters along with many others were well developed and enriched my reading enjoyment.
The novel opens with a Jude being kept in captivity in deplorable conditions and repeatedly raped. This is not a solitary occurrence in this novel. Vulgar language is quite light, and violence generally is described after the fact. Overall, this novel contains strong adult content.
I was quite happy with my purchase of this novel and am looking forward to reading the second novel in this series. This novel was a quick read for me in that I read it in half of the usually time to read a novel of this length. Some readers may object to the fact that Jude would never be allowed back on the police force after what she experienced, and especially after some of her actions after returning to the police force. Despite in reality that assessment is true, it enhanced my enjoyment in reading this novel. Overall, I rate this novel with five stars.
This did not go anywhere I thought it would. Loved the twists and turns. Even when I wasn’t reading it I was thinking about it, wondering where it would go next. Looking forward to reading Book 2.
The concept of this thriller was unique–a woman who was held in captivity for 3 (!!!) years learns to read her captor’s body language so well, she is able to later use this skill in her homicide detective work. I won’t say more because I know I’ll give spoilers, but I’ve been glued to my seat while reading. I also appreciate that there isn’t a ton of cursing/blasphemy used to tell this story. Looking forward to more of Frasier’s books.
The Body Reader (Detective Jude Fontaine Mysteries, #1), my seventh read from author Anne Frasier and the first in a long while. Outstanding psychological thriller/mystery. 8-hours 31-minute/304-pages. I was given an Audible copy of this book back in December of 2016 and lost track of it, now I’m voluntarily reading & reviewing it because every great book needs reviews. Narrator Emily Sutton-Smith’s outstanding narration adds to the book’s enjoyment. Owning both the Audible & Kindle editions I was able to follow along while being read to. I look forward to reading more in this series & from this author. Now I’m going out to buy and read The Body Counter: Detective Jude Fontaine Mysteries, Book 2. (RIP Marley January 20, 2014 – July 24, 2018).
Ms Frasier weaves a great interesting tale of intrigue, action and gives the reader something to look forward to with each chapter. Jude Fontaine, a homicide detective, reappears after a 3 year absence due to her kidnapping. The details are so horrible that it was hard to read those portions, but very necessary to be able to understand the evil behind her plight. The characters are well constructed and each play such a role in the main plot that you get drawn in with each new one introduced: Wondering if that is the ‘bad’ guy…. and the ending was perfect to allow the ‘next’ book to continue!
I think this will be a great series. Will definitely read more. I loved the Elise Sandburg novels set in Savannah GA. I’m sure this series will be just as thrilling.
A female police detective is kidnapped and held captive for three years under extreme conditions of physical and mental abuse. The isolation causes her senses to become hypersensitive and her perception to be acute. She gains her freedom and despite many obstacles and healing psychological wounds, she eventually returns to her job as a detective. She finds herself consumed with the cases of several teenage girls who have either died or gone missing. She sees connections and nuances that no one else sees and that compels her to find answers even if she has to do it on her own. I thought this was a well written story with twists and turns I didn’t see coming. There are some graphic descriptions that were uncomfortable to read, but the author did not dwell on these for the most part and used them more to fill out the backstory of the crimes involved. I did figure out who the “bad guys” were before they were revealed, but that didn’t really matter. I was a little disappointed that the lead character’s heightened senses and perceptions that were played up at the beginning of the book weren’t really used much to solve the crimes.
Great read! I really enjoyed the main characters as well, they seemed to balance each other nicely. I couldn’t imagine going thru what Jude did, and functioning like she does.
I’m finishing book 3 of the series now. It’s third person and head hops some. Book one was pretty straight forward on who the bad guys were, but as the series progresses, you really get in the head of some of the twisted baddies and see the world through their eyes. The writing is masterful without being distracting
A Dark Thriller
Some times I need a darker thriller/mystery as a change from my love of tongue in cheek, sassy lead characters. Three years held by a serial killer, a heart stopping escape, to find your world has moved on without you. Then we move on to chapter 2. Enjoy the read!
Top-notch thriller
This was a fairly interesting book. There was never a moment where I wasn’t entertained. I loved reading about Jude’s new ‘twisted’ personality. Where everybody saw a crazy woman, I saw someone who was only adapting to the horrific experiences she’d been through. This was well worth the time it takes to read, and I’d recommend it to anyone who likes murder mysteries, and a totally bad-ass main character.
Superb! Fascinating story about human strength against adversity and an exceptional detective. I really enjoyed this book!
An excellent example of the old saying about ‘what doesn’t kill us makes us strong’. The setting was also new for me, a nice change from the mean street of the usual capitals of crime.
I took a chance on a new author with this one and I’m glad I did.
All I could think the entire time I was reading the Body Reader was, “how does someone come back from that?”
Clearly, not easily, Jude Fontaine will never be the same, in fact she’s probably broken beyond repair, but this first book in this series is gripping. I can’t wait to see how these characters develop over the course of this series.
Deep, dark and very interesting!
So many truths make the body reading probable. And these characters are just so easy to like, well some of them. You gotta cheer for Jude!