From Publishers Weekly
Insane with grief over the murders of his wife and daughter--victims of Argentina's "dirty war"--Rolando Carrera goes to Alexandria, Va., to torture and kill an American teenager in this artfully crafted mystery. Hougan ( Shooting in the Dark ) chronicles the moral decay of Carera, who blames the girl--his niece, now known as Mariah Ebinger--for the deaths of his loved ones, and who, with a hired assassin, slaughters those who stand between him and his intended victim. Mariah, unaware of the danger stalking her, is plagued with unexplained fears and memory lapses. She screams in terror at the sight of a helicopter flying over her house and cannot account for her fluency in Spanish, a language she has never heard. While inadvertently helping Carrera ensnare her, Mariah unleashes death and destruction on an entire community. Carrera, however, needs--even more than Mariah's death--to suppress the facts about his own part in the brutal slaying of his family. Hougan's sharp prose imparts urgency to her sensitively rendered account of all-too-plausible violence and its chilling consequences.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From Library Journal
Argentine Rolando Carrera is determined to track and kill his teenage niece, who had been adopted 12 years earlier by an American couple. Mariah knows nothing of her previous life, nor do her parents know of this vengeful obsession. Then Mariah discovers her inexplicable ability to speak and understand Spanish. Coincidentally, she, her parents, her boyfriend, and his parents are in danger--and they know nothing except that the two men are willing to do anything to get Mariah. The chapters by Mariah are stronger than those by Rolando, yet the plot moves quickly and becomes horribly intertwined with the "disappeared" victims of 1970s Argentina. There is some carefully handled teenage sex, some gratuitous adult sex, and disturbing scenes and accounts of violence/torture. This is a well-crafted but unsettling novel of the mystery of memory and the aftershocks of evil.
- Rebecca S. Kelm, Northern Kentucky Univ., Highland HeightsCopyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
