I could not put this one down. So GOOD! I really didn't know who the bad guy was until Jude figured it out. I feel there was so much going on that it kept it interesting. No romance is involved. The abuse is graphic at times for any with triggers. ( )

When I order books, I read the preview to make sure I am going to like it, beyond the book description. Sometimes, very rarely, when I read the preview, I don't want to stop. Since I am a book-in-hand girl, waiting for The Body Reader was agony. I devoured this book, and am so thankful I got the remaining 2 in the series. I really hope Anne Frasier plans on continuing this series, because it is phenomenal. ( )

This is worth the walk through the dark.

Most of this story is told from Jude's point of view and that is perfect. I wasn't sure I would make it through the story because this dark sort of tale hasn't been appealing to me. But Jude made me read. I needed to know what happened. I am glad to have read it, and if you're not sure...try it anyway. Know there's a glimmer at the end, and try it anyway. ( )

This was one of the most boring monotonous "suspense" books I've ever read. I kept going on and on hoping it'll get better. It didn't. I finally had to dnf at 55% ( )

Detective Jude Fontaine was abducted and kept imprisoned by a sadistic torturer for three years. When a power outage finally lets her escape, after killing her captor, her first instinct is to go home only to find out that her boyfriend has moved on with another woman.

Jude's second option is to return to the Minneapolis Police Department and resume her job as a homicide detective. There are a lot of questions about whether she is mentally and emotionally stable enough to resume her job. Those questions rise again when she and her new partner Uriah Ashby are called to the apparent suicide of a young woman in a Minneapolis lake. One thing Jude gained from her time in captivity was acute powers of observation. She's convinced that the death was murder, not suicide. When one of the possible witnesses is also brutally murders and had her severed head left in Jude's motorcycle helmet, the thought that the death was murder becomes stronger.

These two cases lead to some cold cases where teenage girls have disappeared. It looks like a connection might be the governor of Minnesota who happens to be Jude's estranged father. But is it an actual connection or the result of Jude's vendetta against her father because of her belief that he murdered her mother when Jude was eight?

This was a fascinating story about a woman trying to rebuild her life after a terrible ordeal and who questions her own sanity. I loved the Minneapolis setting even though it was an alternate Minneapolis subject to power blackouts and a rise in crime and a shifting of neighborhoods.

I liked the relationship Jude is building with her new partner. I liked that she is finding friends again. I thought the mystery was intriguing. Especially intriguing were the chapters from the viewpoint of "His Girl" - another girl who has been held captive for even longer than Jude had been.

I really enjoyed this story and am glad that there are two more books in the series. Emily Sutton-Smith did an excellent job with making each character distinct and using her voice to build tension in the story. ( )