GRAVEN IMAGES – Jane Waterhouse | Looking For a Good Book

THROWBACK THURSDAY: REVIEWING A REISSUE

I have no idea where this book came from. I have a new Kindle that I’ve been using to load only the newest books that I receive from publishers/publicists for review and I am reading them in consecutive order as I get them. This was the next book on that Kindle. But as I sit to write a review, I look back through emails and posts on different websites to see if there are any specifics I need to adhere to when posting a review (usually a date before which no reviews should appear). Occasionally I receive books directly from a publisher or publicist. But I have searched all the usual sites and searched my emails for a dozen different terms, and this book appears NOwhere. I have no recollection of sending it to my Kindle and there’s no one hounding me to post a review. Sooooo strange…

But strange is appropriate for this book. This book tells the story of Garner Quinn – a crime writer for newspapers/magazines. She often attends trials and interviews the accused/convicted criminals. She’s good at what she does and she’s gotten a name for herself (which helps get her interviews).

But the latest case is unsettling for Garner. A serial killer who is nicknamed ‘Holy Ghost’ disfigures his victims, but one young lady survived and selected a young man from a line-up as the killer. But then the young lady changes her story and disfigures herself (for her crimes). The young man, who patiently works to convince Garner that he really is innocent, is found not guilty. But Garner, who has developed an instinct for these things, has a lot of questions which leaves her unsure how to finish her book about him.

She moves on to a new story – one in which an artist puts pieces of his victims inside his sculptures. But Garner feels that someone is watching her. Following her. Has a past story come back to haunt and hunt her, or is this connected with a more immediate killer?

This book truly was haunting. Author Jane Waterhouse has done a tremendous job of pulling the reader in to a series of crimes while keeping the reader from being involved directly (not experience the deaths). What this does is set up the horror as tension, rather than splatter.

I liked the character of Garner Quinn and her calm manner. As a reader, I trust her instincts and impressions, and I am as shocked as anyone when the young man is acquitted, and I don’t trust him.

But the book moves slowly. Too slowly for me. There’s good tension, and there’s a good climax, but it takes just a tad too long to get there. Still…it’s powerful enough for me to want to read more Garner Quinn stories.

Looking for a good book? Graven Images is a tense, dark mystery featuring an ideal ‘detective,’ written by Jane Waterhouse.