ORDER A COPY: Nowhere to Hide
Publisher: Zebra
Publishing Date: August 31, 2012
Paperback: 384 pages
Rating: 4 Stars
“Do unto others…” Carefully, he carves the words into their flesh. The victims are all young, brunette, pretty. But she’s the one he really wants. The others are just a way to ease the rage that has festered for years, until the only thing that calms him is his knife slicing through skin.
Detective September Rafferty—Nine to her friends—recognizes the artwork that arrives in the mail. She created it back in second grade. Now a killer’s words are slashed across it in what looks like blood. He knows her. September’s investigation leads to her old classmate, Jake Westerly. She wants to believe Jake is innocent. But trusting anyone could be her last mistake.
Every slight, every slur, he remembers them all. They turned him into a monster, and now they will suffer for it. Starting with September, he’ll show them that the past can never stay hidden, and the time of vengeance is at hand.
Detective September “Nine” Rafferty is new to the Laurelton Police Department and she is now in charge of the “Do Unto Others” case. The big question is–did the murders begin when she started her new job in Laurelton, or because she started her new job in Laurelton. As Nine and her partner interview friends and acquaintances of the murdered women, the facts keep circling back to Nine and her youth. September doesn’t know if she’s paranoid or if the killer really does have something to do with her own past and is she just a catalyst or a future target?
When her former high school love, Jake Westerly’s name keeps coming up, she knows she will have to speak to him about the murdered women, but just seeing Jake stirs up old feelings in Nine and she just can’t be thinking about that now, not when Jake is on a short list of those who knew the women.
Lover or murderer? September needs to work fast to find the murderer, or she might find that she lost her heart to a killer.
I am definitely going to be keeping my eye out for more Nancy Bush novels. I was again drawn in to the story and the characters and spent a lot of time going back and forth with “It’s him—No, it’s him!” Although I will say that I was drawn to Auggie and Liz a little bit more in Nowhere to Run, but Nowhere to Hide is a great follow up story to the case begun in Nowhere to Run.
If you enjoy thrillers, add Nancy Bush to your list of authors to check out!
Received ARC from Kensington Books. Thank you!
Favorite Scene:
September made herself meet his searching eyes. There was humor in their grey depths. Teasing. She felt herself prickle up and had to remember that this wasn’t high school, or even grade school.
“Are you married?” he asked.
“No.”
“Engaged or involved?”
“I’m…single.”
“You keep up with Bambi?”
She snapped out of the trance-like feeling surrounding her and said shortly. “Barbara’s the one who’s married and she’s got two kids, a boy and a girl.”
“She live around here?” he asked.
“We keep in touch on Facebook,” September said. Before I deactivated it.
I’ll take that as a no. I think I have a Facebook account,” Jake said reflectively. “Might have to try using it more.” He got to his feet and peered at her speculatively. “Anything else, Officer?”
“One thing…”
“Yeah?”
September gazed at him seriously and said, “Didn’t you have Mrs. Walsh in the second grade?”
He gave her a long look, thinking that over. “Mrs. McBride.”
“Ah. Do you remember an art project we did at the beginning of the school year? The whole class did it. It was of cut-out crayon-colored leaves pasted onto construction paper. The leaves were falling into a pile of more leaves on the ground.”
“And the leaves on the ground were just crayoned in, not pasted. Sure. My mother saved everything, and that ‘piece of art’ was one of her favorites. I kinda peaked out in second grade, so she hung onto that one for years.” He squinted at her. “Okay. You got me. Why…?”
September’s gaze searched his eyes, but he seemed completely lost. “Someone recently sent me my leaf picture with a message scrawled on it.”
He frowned. “What do you mean, ‘my leaf picture’?”
“It was my art project. From second grade. Someone sent it to me.”
“Your art project.”
He was as pedantic as Auggie, for God’s sake. “Yes. It was a warning.”
If he was faking his confusion, he was doing an excellent job. “But how? Who would…how could they get it?”
“I don’t know.”
“What did it say? The message.”
They were walking toward the parking lot now and September drew a breath. She wasn’t sure what she wanted from him. Proof that he wasn’t involved in either Sheila’s death or the warning to her, she supposed, thought she couldn’t believe there was any connection, really.
“You said you saw me on my interview with Pauline Kirby?”
“Yes, I did. I thought you looked young.”
“Huh.” That seemed to be the general consensus.
“You were holding your own though…” He stopped suddenly and said, “was that the message? That phrase that Pauilne quoted? Do Unto Others as she did..or something?”
“Do Unto Others As She Did To Me.”
“Holy Christ, Nine.” He stopped short, stunned. “You were sent that same message on your second grade artwork?”
