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Critic's Corner
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At First Sight Reviewed by: Patricia Ann Jones Jodie Larsen's first three suspense novels, "Deadly Company," "Deadly Silence," and "Deadly Rescue," were exceptional. I had the pleasure to review all three. Today, my pleasure is quadrupled as I review her fourth and most compelling work "At First Sight." Kaycee Miller, a psychiatrist with a specialty in graphology, is interviewed by the New Mexico parole board for a consulting position. She is not surprised that the Board wants to test her abilities to analyze handwriting samples. "To most of the psychiatric profession, graphology was on the controversial fringe of their science . . . Only a handful of her colleagues had taken the time to study the results of her groundbreaking research, to see the evolution of a valuable, exciting new technique." Kaycee's work has already impressed several parole boards in Oklahoma, but she couldn't shake the feeling that this board meeting was far from normal. One should always trust first impressions. After an initial test, she's given a set of writing samples to examine. In these six samples she finds something far different, something unique. First, they were all written by the same person, and secondly, they were written over a period of several months. "For years she had lived and breathed graphology, studied how the mind and body blend to create the personal portrait that each person's writing was of their soul." Even so, from the first glance, she finds these writings shocking, so shocking, in fact, that she instinctively cringes. Kaycee doesn't know his name, but she does know he is a man who shows the control he's capable of, and the intelligence that fuels it. "Obviously, he knew he was being watched, felt the constraint of the test, the need to perform. The pressure on him is intense, trying to follow rules that he doesn't buy into." The man is violent, overly suspicious with a tendency to extreme cruelty. He's a loner who holds little value for human life, even his own. She tells the board, that this man is society's worst nightmare a brilliant psychopath. Kaycee is unaware that the Board just gave this man a parole from prison. She will learn soon enough his name and just how accurate her analysis of him is. What follows is a tale at once so bizarre, so filled with psychological suspense, you are compelled to read every word lest you miss some vital clue or nuance. In unimaginable ways, Kaycee Miller's life changes forever in the week following her meeting with the New Mexico Parole Board. The novel writer's first job is to help the reader to suspend disbelief. Larsen is a master when it comes to this facet of writing. You believe Kaycee Miller and the events that lead her into life-threatening situations that bring out not only a Certified Search and Rescue team with their K- 9 dogs, but the FBI. You believe and live each scene as a sociopath kidnaps his own five-year-old daughter, kills a cohort in crime to cover his tracks, then tries to murder a girl whose only crime is being naive and an unwitting accomplice. The personal threat Kaycee faces of an illness that will eventually rob her of her eyesight only adds to the tension. As the plot grows, others come on the scene like Max Masterson, a rancher from Oklahoma and a member of the SAR team, who befriends Kaycee, Niki, Kaycee's crippled sister, who becomes a victim of the killer Willy Thornton, and Bob Palmer who is not only a member of the New Mexico Parole Board, but the owner of the CSI Company. This is a plot that defies review as each foreshadow, each entry of a new character, deepens the mystery. To say more would spoil the readers' fun of discovery. The harrowing climax is full of unforeseen twists and turns as Kaycee and Max use all their skills to stay alive and ultimately discover the horrifying secret that lies at the heart of the kidnaping, and mayhem Thornton creates. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, I'm not easily fooled or impressed, but Larsen held me out on a limb, mesmerized with her slight of mind tricks, characters so clever Sherlock Holmes would have found it impossible to uncover their secrets, and a thrilling storyline that informs and entertains on many levels. With "At First Sight," Larsen stands proudly among her peers in the genre of psychological suspense. Click Here to Order At First Sight (Jones is a published writer & literary critic) More Features |
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