NEXT TIME YOU SEE ME

Author: Katia Lief ISBN: 9780061809040 11/2010 SUSPENSE Publisher: HARPER

Karin Schaeffer thought she had already defeated evil. But there was more. Three years ago, Detective Karin Schaeffer wanted to die when a madman murdered her family—and she would have if her partner, Mac MacLeary, hadn't pulled her back from the edge of the abyss. Now they are married, with a toddler son, and Karin is learning to live again. Then Mac's parents are slain in a brutal home invasion . . . And Mac vanishes . . . And a new nightmare begins. Karin is determined to do whatever it takes to find her husband. But the answers waiting for her in the shadows are almost as unbelievable as his disappearance. Karin pursues the truth—leading her away from her home in Brooklyn to the terrifying heart of the Mexican drug wars to Cape Cod in winter—as dark secrets about the man she loves are revealed. . . .

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

This is the second book in the Karin Schaeffer series. You don’t need to read the first book to understand this book, and I was very happy with how much of a step up NEXT TIME YOU SEE ME was from YOU ARE NEXT. This is Katia Lief’s second novel, and her writing has developed during the time between her books. Any fans of mystery or suspense should go out and read NEXT TIME YOU SEE ME.

The characters in this book are very well written. Karin is still the same strong woman from the first novel. She's always ready to sacrifice herself for those she loves.  We get to see more sides of Mac—we learn about his dark past and find that he isn’t the perfect man he was portrayed as in the first novel.

The thing that has improved the most since YOU ARE NEXT is the plot. This time, the mystery had so many twists and turns, my head began to spin. I could not set this book down because I had to know how everything played out. NEXT TIME YOU SEE ME was the heart-pounding mystery I had been craving.

Caitlin Turner