From Publishers Weekly
The wind and the rain that rage in the opening scenes of Shamus Award-winner MacGregor's (Mistress of the Bones; The Hanged Man) off-beat psychodrama soon become internal forces, as the lives of his yuppified characters are torn up and battered. Ambitious Miami attorney Frank Benedict, drinking heavily to dull the loss of a client whose business would have assured him a full partnership in his high-powered firm, is alone on the road in his black BMW. When a Ford Explorer carrying pregnant FBI agent Charlie Calloway and her husband crosses Benedict's path, the lawyer, still seething with unresolved anger, hits the accelerator instead of the brake. He smashes the Explorer again, killing Calloway's husband, then drives off in a panic, leaving Charlie bleeding in the street and her pet dog running into the neighborhood. Arriving home, Benedict frantically begs his wife to support him; charges of intoxication, leaving the scene and vehicular homicide would end his career, he argues. Together they sink the battered Beemer in an abandoned quarry. Though her baby dies, Charlie gradually recovers. Frustrated by the lack of clues in Charlie's husband's homicide, her boss seeks the help of former agent Doug Logan, who has ESP resulting from a near-death experience when he was wounded in the line of duty. It turns out that Charlie had a similar experience after the collision, and now she too has psychic powers. With a million-dollar reward on his head, Benedict's anxiety escalates and he kills again, but Charlie's injured dog provides the clue to Benedict's undoing, thanks to an elderly Alzheimer's patient who can see into the future. MacGregor keeps the suspense rising, and a rushed and melodramatic denouement is the only letdown in her creepy exploration of the powers of human perception. Author tour.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
An FBI agent goes after the hit-and-run driver who has killed her husband and newborn sonand so does nearly everyone else in greater Miami. Frank Benedict, driving home from an unsuccessful dinner with the prospective client he's counting on to help him land a law partnership at 44, slams into the side of Charlie Calloway's van in a fit of rage, then backs up and hits it again before driving off into the stormy night. Charlie, awakening in a hospital to find that she's lost both husband and soneven her dog Paz has run awayvows revenge. Meanwhile, Frank's told his blue-blooded wife Anita just enough lies to enlist her help in ditching his ruined BMW in a nearby swamp and reporting it stolen. It's hardly the perfect crime, but he'd probably get away with it if it weren't for all the forces of justice arrayed against him. Item: FBI forensic specialist Leo Wells seeks out his misfit ex-colleague Doug Logan, who developed an uncanny sensitivity to psychic phenomena after surviving a near-death experience. Item: Charlie's old roommate, Dr. Lorraine Sneider, puts Charlie under hypnosis to see what details she can dredge up about the fatal night. Item: veterinarian Chrissy Lincoln, whose mother took in the fleeing Paz under the impression that he was a reincarnation of her late husband, recognizes him as the dog mentioned in accounts of the incident. Item: even Anita finds herself tempted by the $1 million reward Charlie's old friend Chico Ruiz, the gay talk-radio host, is offering. And now that Charlie herself, having been pronounced dead for two minutes at the hospital, has developed a seventh sense like Logan's, the biggest question is which of these avengers can get to hapless Frank Benedict first. Too many cooks spoil the suspense, leaving this story most memorable as another example of MacGregor's distinctive amalgams of melodrama, parapsychology, and wrenching emotional loss (The Hanged Man, 1998, etc.). (Author tour) --
Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
