RAGE AGAINST THE DYING (2013)

Rage Against the Dying by Becky Masterman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The disturbing prologue of Becky Masterman's debut thriller, Rage Against the Dying, almost convinced me to stop reading right then and there. I am not crazy about serial killers and helpless women. And when chapter one began “Ten days earlier. . .” I was not reassured. I skipped ahead checking the beginning of each chapter until I found out what was going to happen. After that I relaxed and devoured the rest of the story in a day and a half.

Bottom Line: Becky Masterman is a worthy new voice in the genre. The hard part will be waiting for her next book. Highly recommended.

This is a great thriller and for a change the retired FBI agent is a fifty-nine-year-old woman. Brigid Quinn’s job was hunting sexual predators and she carries dreadful memories that continue to haunt her. Trying to create a new life she has recently married and attempted to settle down in Tucson, Arizona with her philosophy professor husband Carlo; but when a man is arrested, who admits to being responsible for a series of killings in one of Brigid’s unsolved cases, she can’t help but get involved. The web of lies involved threaten to take Brigid’s new life away from her.

Here’s an excerpt from a conversation between Brigid and Carlo:

            “Trying to derive meaning from hardship isn’t exclusively Christian. There’s Viktor Frankl. And I like what someone once said: “there’s a crack in everything, and that’s how the light gets in.’”

            I pointed to his book. “Wittgenstein?”

            He shook his head. “Leonard Cohen.”

How can you NOT love dialogue like that?

Then I read somewhere that the working title had been One Tough Broad. That would have been so wrong and wouldn't have appealed to the older female readers who are going to want to see some part of themselves in Brigid.

Disclaimer: I got my copy of Rage Against the Dying from my local library after seeing a number of mentions and reviews.

Title: Rage Against the Dying ~ A Thriller

Author: Becky Masterman

Genre: Thriller, Mystery

Publisher: Minotaur

No. of Pages: 320 pages

Copyright: March 12, 2013

ISBN: 0312622945

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Source: Jackson District Library

An acquisitions editor for a press that specializes in medical textbooks (forensic examiners and law enforcement!), Becky Masterman grew up in Florida and received her M.A. in creative writing from Florida Atlantic University. She and her husband actually live in Tucson, Arizona. This is her first thriller.

 

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