By USA Today best-selling author Pamela Crane comes a psychological thriller critics are calling “a literary ride that you’ll sink your teeth into and savor until the last chilling page.” Perfect for fans of Karin Slaughter and Angela Marsons.A kidnapped baby. A mother’s will to find her. A killer targeting them both. Three years ago Tina Alvarez was trapped in a sex-trafficking ring. Three … Tina Alvarez was trapped in a sex-trafficking ring. Three years ago she bore a daughter who was sold on the black market. But three years didn’t erase her tenacity to get her little girl back … and get even with the ones who took her.
When rookie private investigator Ari Wilburn accepts her first case to find Tina’s long-lost daughter, Ari unravels a mystery bigger than a missing child. A serial killer is targeting people close to her, and the key to who—and why—is buried deep in her past. As the investigation puts her in the killer’s crosshairs, Ari must decide between saving herself or guarding her family’s grisly secrets.
But for Ari it’s not easy being a savior. Bringing Tina’s daughter back means taking the child from the only family she knows. Is reuniting Tina with her little girl worth destroying this child’s life, and possibly her own?
A serial killer is watching. Plotting. Can Ari stop the killer before she’s next?
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Pamela Crane is the master of writing psychological thrillers and has done it again with The Death of Life.
The writing and story are dark and not for the faint-hearted. Ms. Crane cleverly leads us down many garden paths until we become frustrated and impatient to know who the real villain is, in a novel comprising many villains. It is not a story that lends itself to leaving readers feeling satisfied, but the author weaves her magic in the final chapters, ensuring we are not left flat and deflated.
The Death of Life can be read and enjoyed as a standalone novel, but your reading experience will be improved if you read The Art of Fear first.
You’ll not regret buying these two novels. Highly recommended
There is a lot of death in The Death of Life by Pamela Crane. Most of it involves child abduction and human trafficking; this serves as a trigger warning for those overly sensitive to the topic. I am one of those, but the captivating writing from the first few pages kept me reading. The author does not use unneeded sexual or violent language; most readers will not be offended. With this topic, most of the horror will be a result of the reader’s imagination prompted by the author’s talent. I don’t usually compare authors with each other but as I was reading this I thought frequently that I was reading something by Willow Rose, also one of my favorite authors. Pamela Crane has become my latest favorite author.
The thirty-seven chapters of this 258-page novel have chapter titles which are the names of characters, the POV for that chapter. About ten of the chapters have no title, they are from the point of view of the killer. I didn’t guess the identity of the killer until almost the end. Crane gives us many distractors and false paths to follow on our way to the conclusion. The readers are not the only one following false paths, hero and protagonist Ari Wilburn is fooled several times as she pursues her unofficial investigation. She should not be investigating; she is a file clerk in the Durham, North Carolina Police Department.
But she does not want to be a file clerk. She is taking courses so that she can form her own private investigations firm. Her job as a file clerk is to get tips on investigative and interrogation tips. Her purpose in life, her passion, is to find the killer of her younger sister, Carli. It is not a spoiler to note that she also works at the department during the daytime to be close to Tristan, a “real” detective. She is close to him at night outside the department.
Ari has a dark and convoluted past. Her mom and dad are both alive, but she doesn’t have a good relationship with them. They put her in a foster home after Carli’s death saying that they couldn’t put up with the existence of Ari which only served to remind them of Carli. Readers can dwell on the stereotypes of life in a foster home. If that isn’t dark enough, early in the novel we get hints that Carli was killed as a warning to Burt Wilburn, Ari’s father. Burt had connections to a known child trafficker, George Battan. Burt would sometimes make introductions that allowed Battan to recruit children. Wilburn, it seemed, wanted to get out of the relationship and Battan was signaling displeasure with Burt by killing Carli. Ari, working to become a private investigator, knew or had hints about her father’s dark past. Ari knew why her sister had died. Battan was in prison because of Ari’s work with a former Battan victim, Tina. Ari had discovered Tina in a support group and the eighteen-year-old lived with Ari while the two tried to find Tina’s child, Giana, who had been taken from Tina at birth and sold by Battan. Tina could testify against Battan about another missing girl, Marla, who Tina had seen while living in captivity with Battan. But Tina would not testify until Giana was found. Battan hinted that he would tell Tina where Giana was in return for Tina not testifying.
Tina has the key to the prosecution of Battan. Tina is living with Ari who in turn is living with Detective Tristan. Marla is still missing. Ari wants to find Marla, find Giana, and find out the truth about her father’s past and Carli’s death. And this is just the novel’s set up.
Then the murders start. What murders? As far as the reader knows, none of the characters above are murdered. True, Marla is missing but she is an unknown at this point. Nope, there are still a bunch of characters to come, several of whom will be killed. This is not a novel so full of characters a reader will get bored. This is fast-paced, well-constructed, and a page-turner. It is too interesting to put down and my Kindle says it takes five hours to read. Find five hours and read this all in one sitting. I gave this novel five Amazon stars, much like I give to Willow Rose novels, and I look forward to reading many more Pamela Crane novels.
I love Pamela Crane books!!!
This is the second book in the series and it was just as good (if not better) than the first book.
The characters are easy to love and just as easy to hate! There is just enough of everything for everybody!
Disturbing, brilliant, thrilling. Pamela Crane’s vivid and well-written tale of justice being served to dark and twisted monsters is an edge-of-your-seat ride from page one. A stand-alone story that will haunt you, and that you will love.
I have to admit I can usually have a pretty good idea who the villain is by the middle of the book. Not so with this book. The storyline is so prevalent in today’s society and it’s a raw and gut wrenching subject that must be brought out into the open. This book does that. The characters were not as important to me as the book as a whole even though the main character was so immersed in the story. This is a “must read” for those who feel strongly about child sex trafficking.
Update:
I changed the star rating from four to five. The Author made some changes to the book based on some feedback I gave and i said that I would reread the book. I love the new ending. I feel that that would be a more realistic ending for someone in this situation.
Below is my original review:
*I received this book as an ARC and this is my honest and freely given review.*
Two things: I did not realize that I have read another book by this author that I really loved: Pretty Ugly Lies, till the end. Nor did I realize that this is Book Two of this story till just now.
That aside I can actually say that this book can stand alone (by itself) as a read and you will follow along with no problems. The story line moves very fast is well written. I think that Ari has very real characteristics of a person who experienced death, foster care and abandonment issues.
Without giving the book away, I only rated the book 4 stars not 5 because I personally am not happy with the epilogue in the story. I even reread it twice today to see if I misread last night when finishing it. I personally feel that it does not keep in character with what Ari has said during the story and it would be way too soon for that ending to happen. I also feel that the character who is anonymous till the end needs a tad more development, like how they made connection to Ari’s family member – I got the why they did it when thinking about how to write this review, and I did not see who it was till the end.
All that aside, I do recommend the book and say make your own judgements. You will probably disagree with my opinion but this is my honest feelings about the book