From Publishers Weekly
Despite an improbable plot and a mystery villain you can spot a mile away, Abercrombie's follow-up to his grisly
The Body Box is a whodunit police procedural with a fast pace and action enough to keep readers along for the ride. Former Atlanta police detective Hank Gooch, bored with retirement, returns to work with a vengeance when his former partner, Sgt. MeChelle Deakes of the cold case unit, is abducted. Deakes's kidnapper's demands are far from typical: instead of a ransom, the unknown assailant demands that Deakes, with whatever assistance she can obtain, not only solve an old homicide but obtain proof that would stand up in court. To make the challenge even more Herculean, Deakes's eyes have been glued shut, she's allowed just three brief phone calls an hour to communicate with Gooch, and her kidnapper isn't speaking a word. Returning heroine Deakes remains a fun, feisty lead—even when forced to toss witty barbs at a silent partner— and Gooch's no-nonsense act is likable if familiar, but their intriguing setup isn't matched by the follow-through, which burns through a pool of suspects so scant as to leave the identity of murderer and kidnapper in plain sight.
(Dec.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Product Description
Atlanta Police Department Cold Case Unit Detective Mechelle Deakes wakes up to discover she's blind. Worse, once she stumbles out of bed, she realizes she's not in her own room...His partner missing, Lt. Hank Gooch looks into her most recent investigation, a case involving a young blind woman who came in to report an old, unsolved murder. Her evidence: a tape recording of a voice she got off the radio...Mechelle has the unmistakable feeling that someone is in the house with her - someone she can hear breathing and moving, but won't speak a word to her. Somehow she must find a way to make a connection with her captor - if she expects to get out of this house alive.
