Search Angel
A Novel
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $1.99
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- $1.99
Publisher Description
A riveting suspense thriller about the reuniting of birth mothers with their adopted children and the madman who preys on them
After two highly praised psychological thrillers, Mark Nykanen returns with his most spellbinding story yet. Suzanne Trayle is a 'Search Angel' whose success in tracking down and reuniting birth mothers with their adopted children has earned her national fame. Known as 'The Orphan's Private Eye,' Suzanne has reunited thousands of mothers with their children, but has failed to find the son she put up for adoption thirty years ago.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Nykanen (The Bone Parade) mines the complex world of abandonment, adoption and birth mother searches in an extremely bloody serial killer thriller that takes derivative elements (the female-in-peril plot; the psychotic, abused-as-a-child murderer) to new heights of creepiness with long, gratuitous descriptions of murder and rape. Portland-based Suzanne Trayle is a famous "search angel," a sort of private detective for adoptees looking for their biological parents. The serial killer, a psychiatrist, lives in Phoenix and travels the country murdering mothers who gave up their babies for adoption. In the beginning of the novel, Suzanne admits to having given up a child herself 32 years before and never being able to trace him. This puts her on the killer's list, and he quickly makes his intentions known by raping her. There's a last-minute surprise, but Nykanen falters early as he tries to explain away that pesky fictional problem: why the heroine doesn't just go to the police for help but instead hatches a complicated plan to use herself as bait to trap the murderer. This works about as well for Suzanne as it usually does in novels of this sort. Those with a strong stomach may find this interesting, but most readers will be repelled.
