Burnout [Paperback]

Jeannine Kadow (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2000

Fire burns the flesh. And it keeps Lacie Wagner awake at night. She has the scars to prove it--and the nightmares... Nightmares began with her father's death. Nightmares of a stranger's face...and a taunting voice of fear and menace... Now the terrifying inferno of Lacie's nightmares is becoming real. And with each passing night it's burning her alive...

"Compelling...dramatic...ingenious twists."-- Publishers Weekly

"horrific...a heart-stopping journey."-- Washington Post Book World

"A knockout. Staggeringly well done."-- Kirkus Reviews

More incredible praise for Burnout:

"If you're faint of heart, don't go near this one."-- Chicago Tribune "Shattering...A riveting suspense thriller with a plot that moves like wildfire."-- Lake Worth Herald (FL)

"A suspense mystery which had me reading into the early morning hours."-- The Snooper

"Kadow offers the reader uncanny insights into both the mind of a killer and that of an FBI profiler. A harrowing and ultimately gratifying read."-- Gregg McCrary, former FBI profiler

"A walk on the dark side for a dark winter's night reading."-- The Poisoned Pen

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Rising young television anchorwoman Lacie Wagner has been plagued by nightmares since the car accident that killed her father and burned and crippled her hands when she was 10. Now it appears that the menacing figure who whispers threats in her dreams may be not only a real person but a sadistic killer who is stalking her and her family. Kadow's second novel (after Blue Justice) begins with the mysterious burnout of a warplane in Alaska and quickly moves to the disappearance of a teenage girl in New York. Lacie's affluent and work-obsessed life turns tragic as she steps into a web woven by a madman who somehow knows every detail of her life and her past. The police seem unable to help, so Lacie opts to go after her mysterious shadower, relying on her own instincts, against her better judgment and in spite of her terrible fear of fire, to get to the bottom of the mystery. Assisting her is Jack Stein, an unconventional and attractive FBI agent. Excepting her protagonist, Kadow's characters seem to exist primarily to move the plot along (for example, Lacie's Uncle Max, who just happens to be a Delta Force commando). The depictions of the stalker's methods (he uses fire as both a threat and a tool) are compelling, if grisly. The story is dramatic, and although too many coincidences help Lacie and Jack unravel a decades-old mystery, readers will be drawn in by some ingenious twists. Ultimately, however, this is a standard vengeance thriller, and one with a very unfortunate tendency toward graphic torture scenes, including some that involve children. BOMC selection.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Onyx; Reprint edition (January 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451198239
• ISBN-13: 978-0451198235
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,307,591 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A compelling and terrifying journey., February 18, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Burnout (Hardcover)

BURNOUT is a compelling and terrifying journey. Jack Stein is the distilled essence of an accomplished FBI profiler. By dispassionately weighing facts and meticulously analyzing behavior, Stein finds rational patters in seemingly irrational violence. He forges the killer's behavior into a weapon, ingeniously turning this powerful pathology onto itself. MS. kadow offers the reader uncanny insights into both the mind of a killer and that of an FBI profiler as each become predator and prey. BURNOUT is a harrowing and ultimately gratifying read. Highly recommended.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Riveting, March 15, 2000

By 

Travis (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Burnout (Paperback)

I found Burnout by accident during a vacation in Hawaii. I then found myself trying to find extra time to read instead of enjoying the island and my vacation. The suspense created by the sinister actions of a madman, working against a "survivor" of a life of obstacles and disappointments was engaging. It was unbelievable how unfair Lacie's life had been, until you learn little by little the origination of her pain. The streams of consciousness and transgressions into the characters' past all come to a rousing finally. What a fun read.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Didn't really strike a spark with me, November 28, 2007

By 

Music Lover in Omaha (Omaha, Ne) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Burnout (Paperback)

Although the book was readable and kind of interesting, I find myself in the VAST minority here when I rate it 3 stars. My first problem with BURNOUT was Jack, the heroic FBI agent. Despite being good at his job, I really question if mavericks like this are welcome in the FBI. If he is really welcome in the brotherhood of the feds it would only be because he is a virtual superman, so unbelievable that I really tired of him. The same goes for the killer in this novel. Not only was he evil and a genious, but he was able to predict almost to the minute of where our heroes would be and when they would be there. I think the implausability of the happenings were just too much for me, especially the contrived fires, the opening scene on the aircraft carrier and the mountain climbing in the final chapter. It was supposed to be 20 below zero with 50 mile an hour winds during a blinding snowstorm. No way, no matter how much you love your daughter. Not a climber with exactly no mountain climbing experience. Add in the situations that set everything in motion: Secret government experiments, coincidence of the girls being at the same camp, tires blowing out and the auto accidents going exactly as planned and that idiot Jerry. Jerry was a good father? Instead of having the police questioning him, they should have thrown his sorry behind in jail for child endangerment. Oh, that's right, they didn't bother to check his story which would have taken all of five minutes on the phone. Brother!!! As for Lacie, the heroine, I could not really develop a positive feeling for her. She seemed cold and to be honest, pretty incompetent. I was hoping for a heroine who is at least semi-capable of taking care of herself. So anyway, when I purchased Burnout, I also purchased DEAD TIDE by Jeannine Kadow which is another novel featuring Lacie Wagner. I plan to start it right away. Who knows? It may be better. If it's only just as good as BURNOUT it won't be a waste of time.