Release Date: 01/08/13
Publisher: Century
SYNOPSIS:
When two plane crashes set off a spellbinding chain reaction of murder, inadvertent kidnapping, corporate corruption and financial double-dealing, Niceville detective Nick Kavanaugh has to investigate. To add to his worries, he and his wife, Kate, have also just taken in brutally orphaned Rainey Teague. Something bothers Nick about Rainey - and it isn't just that the woman in charge of attendance at Rainey's school has suspiciously disappeared. In fact, people have long been disappearing from seemingly placid Niceville, including, most disturbingly, Kate's father. Using his files, Kate and Nick start to unearth Niceville's blood-stained history, but something (or is it Nothing?) stands in their way...
REVIEW:
Whilst I had problems with the original, this second offering from Carsten really seemed to work so much better (although it could be because I’m not used to his writing style.) The prose was sharp, the author brought all the sort of things I expected form the original into this title and when added to some backstory carefully placed within, worked a whole lot better for me as a reader.
Add to this a very sharp story-arc, some cleverly plotted twists alongside some other misdirection as the author drip fed the reader the clues, all round works wonderfully. Great stuff.
Release Date: 02/08/12
SYNOPSIS:
When ten-year-old Rainey Teague disappears on his way home from school in idyllic Niceville, Detective Nick Kavanaugh traces the boy to his last sighting - staring into the window of old pawn shop in town. CCTV shows Rainey there one minute and then gone the next. In the days that follow, any hope Rainey's family has of finding him alive starts to fade but then Rainey is found - alive but in a coma, and there's no telling when, or if, he'll ever wake up...One year on, Kavanagh is still haunted by the case. And now another member of the town - this time an elderly woman - has been reported missing. It's as though she vanished into thin air. Once again, Kavanagh's on the case and, as he starts to dig back through the town's history, he can't help but notice that Niceville has a much higher than average number of stranger abductions...
REVIEW:
OK, I love something a little different and this book from Carsten definitely did that blending Urban Fantasy together with a fast paced crime thriller which has received acclaim from quite a few well known authors. Great I thought, a real treat and something I couldn’t wait to dive into yet when I did, I was a little disappointed as for me the principle character was one that I really couldn’t get a hook on, he felt flat, a little too unconnected to the world which for me is usually a deal breaker as it makes working your way through it more of a struggle.
Don’t get me wrong, I did like the underlying arc, the twists that left the reader wondering which way was up and of course the teasers that were bread crumbed along for the reader to follow, but when I can’t get on with a lead character it’s definitely difficult to keep going. All in for me, I was a little underwhelmed and disappointed but with the idea’s behind I will give Carsten another shot to keep me glued. Here’s hoping.
