Body Work [Mass Market Paperback]

Fiona Brand (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2006

The killer liked him women young and defenseless.

He was never caught.

As a child, Jane Gale witnessed her mother's murder and was nearly killed in trying to escape. Left for dead, she has suffered complete memory loss, unable to recall who she was before the accident or the events that caused her mother's death. Twenty-five years later, Jane has a new life and a blossoming career as a novelist -- until the killer picks up her book and discovers that the only eyewitness to his secrets has survived. And told.

Oblivious to the fact that she has attracted the murderer back into her life, Jane has no idea where the inspiration for her bestseller came from. But she has a photograph that leads her back to Louisiana, to a place she knows but can't remember -- and to a stranger she wants to trust. Because somehow he is a link to her past . . . and her only chance of staying alive.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Fiona Brand nicely mixes romance and adventure." -- Romantic Times on Gabriel West: Still the One

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Mira (March 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0778322890
• ISBN-13: 978-0894558108
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,454,070 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars solid character driven serial killer thriller, March 4, 2006

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Body Work (Mass Market Paperback)

Twenty-five years ago in Atlanta someone rapes and murders young women leaving gypsum on their body and taking their hair. Soon the case turns national as similar homicides surface in Florida, New York, and the West Coast some ten years old. The Feds conclude that the gypsum is used to make memento masks of the victims. Law enforcement official Stephen Dexter believes his older half-brother Etienne is the killer as he fits the FBI profile perfectly though he would not be shocked if his sibling's twin Charles is in cahoots; he hates both of his half-brothers who treated him like a "worm".

In the present Jane Gale cannot remember anything from when she was seven years old and a serial killer murdered her mother. Now an adult, she has written a best selling novel that stuns the still free mask killer as he realizes that her muse is her eyewitness memory of him. He decides he must kill the author just in case she regains more of that nightmarish memory she lost.

This tale occurs during three different time periods, opening up forty-five years ago when the Dexters were preadolescents being abused by Stephen's biological mother; switching to a serial killer twenty-five year ago; and finally the present with Jane's novel. The story line is gripping in all three eras, but though the opening scenario sets behavioral patterns for the future, they feel like three different tales. Still this is a deep look at the child becomes the adult as the three Dexters and Jane each had youthful traumas that haunt them as adults. Fiona Brand provides a solid character driven serial killer thriller.

Harriet Klausner

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excitingly Detailed, August 7, 2006

By 

Sal (Buffalo, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Body Work (Mass Market Paperback)

Ms. Brand writes with a subtle sense of humor that is admirable. There may not be a lot of conversations in her story but the descriptions of happenings would catch anyone's attention. It is a romance between a woman who is trying to find out about her past and a police officer. Also a murder mystery, it exercises one's mind to think about the plot. The first and second parts feature the background of three brothers, and a mother and her daughter on the run from an estranged boyfriend. The third part picks up the daughter's present life living comfortably as a published novelist who is interested in searching for her birth family. For a romance, the last chapter and epilogue finalize the story more in a mystery solved style rather than a good-feeling romantic scene which is a good change of pace.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Body Work, August 1, 2006

By 

Chelsie Lacny "Chel" (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Body Work (Mass Market Paperback)

This is an interesting book. Once I picked it up I couldn't put it down, I was addicted. It starts 45 years ago with the Dexter brothers all being bullied by their stepmother, but in Stephen's case his birth mother. And then 25 years ago, with strange murders, and Jane witnesses her mother's murder and is nearly killed trying to escape.
And back to present time, where she can't remember anything before the "accident" and unknowingly she writes about it in her bestselling novel, which makes the killer realize that while he thought he'd killed her, she was actually alive.
And Jane comes back to the town she had her accident led by an old photo, and she tries to figure out what happened before the accident and where her family is. She finds the boy in the picture, a man now and a cop. She must deal with the murderer coming to get her and also a strange stalker, which gives this book a lot of twists and a very satisfying ending.