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Critic's Corner
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"As soon as the jury came back, she knew. "Faces somber, eyes trained on the floor, they filed back to their seats, these twelve men and women who held his life in their hands. None of them glanced toward the spectators. None of them met his eyes. In her third-row gallery seat, Laura Seton leaned slightly forward. Placing a hand on her throat, she felt a bird like pulsing flutter. As her fingers traced the delicate bones of her neck, she thought how easy it would be to break them." Laura had good cause to know how Steven Gage's hands felt around her neck. But she was one of the lucky ones. She survived. Her testimony against Gage brought a serial killer to justice. Her only guilt, she had not seen him for what he was sooner before he'd killed again and again. Then, after the murder of Dahlia Schuyler, Laura could no longer hide the things her mind wanted to forget. As Steven's ex-girlfriend she thought she knew him well only to find out she did not know him at all. Memories rose in her mind as she heard the foreman read the verdict. "A blood-soaked shirt behind the bed. Bone fragments in the fireplace. Knives. A mask. Rubber gloves. But always an explanation. Always an explanation. Until one day, there just wasn't." The verdict was unanimous. "We, the jury, unanimously find that the State has proven the following listed statutory aggravating circumstance or circumstances beyond a reasonable doubt . . ." Steven Gage was guilty and sentenced to death. All that was eleven years ago. Eleven years after Gage swore in court that those responsible for his conviction would pay. "Do you hear me? He shouted. "All of you will pay." Now, five years after Gage's execution three women connected with his case have moved on with their lives. Melanie White, his defense attorney, has at last rid herself of the stigma of defending Gage. Diane Massey, a true-crime writer has started a new project after her bestseller about Gage's rampage. Laura Seton, Steven's ex-girlfriend has made an entirely new life for herself. A life where she won't be reminded that she once shared her home with a monster. Unfortunately someone hasn't moved on. Someone on the fifth anniversary of Steven Gage's execution sent each of the women a private note—a chilling message that lets them all know they haven't been forgotten, and that in someone's dark imagination, Gage's legacy of terror lives on. Each note is addressed to the women using their names, no postmark, no identifying signature, just "Happy Anniversary, (their name), I haven't forgotten you." Why on the fifth anniversary of Gage's death is this person doing this? Who is the writer and what connection did he have with Steven Gage? Gutman takes readers into the present lives of each of the women. Laura Seton, who is now known as Callie Thayer, moved from Tennessee to Merritt, Massachusetts, a small college town, where she's employed in the alumni affairs office while she works on her Master's degree in abnormal psychology. Her life is good. She enjoys her job, going to school, and raising her ten- year-old daughter Anna. Callie has a boyfriend, Rick Evans a police officer, who wants to marry her, but something is holding her back from accepting his proposal— something vague, unnameable. Diane, after eight consecutive New York Times bestsellers is on to a new project. She leaves her Manhattan apartment for a secluded cottage in Maine so she can work without interruptions. As a young reporter in Nashville she'd set in on Gage's trial, followed the story, been fascinated by the gruesome details. She met Gage's ex-girlfriend at an AA meeting after Gage was sentenced. Then one day Laura called Diane, and from their newly formed friendship Diane's first book came—"The Vanishing Man." It was a smash hit and all these years later was still in print. Melanie White, Gage's defense attorney is now with a new law firm and up for a partnership. Steven Gage is not a name she wants to remember. The Anniversary note changes her life, her career, and brings terror to her doorstep. Interspersed around and about these three women are well-defined characters any of whom could be the anonymous note sender. Each has a story that causes you to suspect that they might be the person carrying on Gage's hatred. But then, Diane is brutally murdered, Melanie is attacked and left for dead, Anna is kidnapped, and the story grows darker page by page until the ultimate moment when good and evil clash in a totally unsuspected resolution. Amy Gutman, author of the widely acclaimed suspense novel "Equivocal Death," has worked as a newspaper reporter in Tennessee and Mississippi and was the founding director of the Mississippi Teacher Corps. An honors graduate of the Harvard Law School, Amy practiced law in Manhattan for several years before writing her first book. "The Anniversary," her second novel is, in the words of Nelson DeMille, author of The General's Daughter and Up Country, "Sharp, surprising, and brilliantly written. . . .A thriller for connoisseurs of thrillers . . . " DeMille is correct, "The Anniversary" is indeed "A Thriller for connoisseurs of thrillers." Jones is a published writer & literary critic, and a reviewer for The Tulsa World newspaper. Copyright Patricia Ann Jones, August 12, 2003, all rights reserved To comment on this review you may email pattij777@aol.com |
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The Anniversary
