Publisher's Weekly Review
Bestseller Omer's well-crafted third and final Abby Mullen thriller (after Damaged Intentions) teams NYPD hostage negotiator Abby with hardheaded FBI profiler Zoe Bentley, the star of another Omer series. Back in 1987, religious cult leader Moses Wilcox locked his entire congregation in the dining room of his North Carolina compound and burned it down, killing 59 people, including Abby's parents. Only Abby and a few other children survived. Now, more than 30 years later, Abby and Zoe are sure several new cases of arson and murder are related to Wilcox. Abby feels he's driven by twisted religious motives, but Zoe, who initially thought Abby wasn't needed in the investigation, believes he's compelled by an obsessive sexual drive. The stakes rise when Wilcox threatens Abby's children. In short, often horrific, fast-moving scenes, the two women learn to work together, their respective talents complementing each other's. By focusing on the two women's contrasting personalities, Omer adds heat to the familiar plot of police pursuing a mad man. This one's an obvious candidate for film adaptation. Agent: Sarah Hershman, Hershman Rights Management. (Nov.)
Kirkus Review
A criminal profiler and a hostage negotiator go up against a murderous cult leader from the negotiator's past--and, to a lesser extent, up against each other. Years after surviving the Wilcox Cult Massacre, Lt. Abby Mullen, NYPD, gets wind of a cult leader out West who's evidently just as obsessed with punishing his enemies by fire as Moses Wilcox was when she was a child--his child. In the first of many non-surprises, the new firebug turns out to be Wilcox, risen from the ashes and now calling himself Father Moses Williams. Abby, who has plenty of traumatic background experience but zero official standing, does her best to push her way into the investigation, but FBI agent Tatum Gray isn't terribly receptive, and consulting profiler Dr. Zoe Bentley is downright hostile. Impervious to their lack of encouragement and desperate for a chance to neutralize Wilcox at last, Abby continues to crash their party at every opportunity. In the meantime, Wilcox, whose messianic preaching to his rapt followers conceals nothing more original than a drive for sex, coercive power, and coerced sex, has set his sights on a new target: Delilah Eckert, who's taken her two children and gone on the run from her abusive husband, Brad. Wilcox's followers swarm around Delilah like cartoon minions, assuring her constantly what a great mother she is, and she's soon addicted to this community of affirmation and easy prey for their leader. Whenever Wilcox senses danger, he has his devoted disciples set fire to their lodgings and move on from Wyoming to Idaho to California. The flames grow ever higher, but suspense never rises above a simmer. Notable mainly for uniting the author's two franchise investigators. Let's see what happens next. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
