Call the Devil by His Oldest Name [Mass Market Paperback]

Sallie Bissell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2, 2004

Haunted by the death of her mother and tortured by the secret that died upon her best friend's lips, assistant district attorney Mary Crow is obsessed with finding the man who holds the key to both those tragedies.

When her infant goddaughter is kidnapped, Mary knows the hunt she's been dreading has begun. In a lethal game of cat-and-mouse that will take her along the Cherokee Trail of Tears, Mary must save the child of the man she loves while she rips the secrets from the heart of a killer who could be mistaken for the very devil himself.

Sallie Bissell, fast distinguishing herself as the Patricia Cornwall of the Appalachian Mountains, delivers a tour de force of relentless suspense and heart-stopping menace that Rendezvous raves "will leave you breathless."

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Cherokee Mary Crow, the assistant DA of Deckard County, Ga., and her old nemesis, Stump Logan, return in Bissell's third thriller, which is no less gripping than her lauded debut, In the Forest of Harm. Long presumed dead, Stump has crawled out of his hole with a new identity and a sinister plan to eliminate Mary. His bait: Mary's three-month-old goddaughter, Lily, daughter of Mary's ex-lover Jonathan Walkingstick and his new bride, Ruth. Mary has just finished her closing arguments for a kiddie porn conviction when she learns that Lily has been kidnapped. As Mary follows the kidnapper's trail, it becomes apparent that the kidnapper is far more interested in Mary than Lily. Bissell slips plenty of information from her earlier books into the story to keep readers up to speed, and some will be pleased to note that this book contains significantly fewer gruesome elements than her previous shockers. Though details of child endangerment and child pornography are still stomach-churning, Bissell's strong writing and clever, didn't-see-that-coming denouement will keep readers enthralled. If Bissell can better flesh out her characters' motivations, she may soon be keeping company with the likes of Tami Hoag and Sandra Brown.
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Review

"No less gripping than her lauded debut, In the Forest of Harm…. Bissell's strong writing and clever, didn't-see-it-coming denoument will keep readers enthralled."
--Publishers Weekly

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 370 pages
• Publisher: Dell (March 2, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553584944
• ISBN-13: 978-0553584943
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 1 x 6.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,002,474 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 pulse pounding, adrenaline-pumping novel, March 2, 2004

By 

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

This review is from: Call the Devil by His Oldest Name (Mass Market Paperback)

Assistant district attorney Mary Crow is an excellent prosecutor and genuinely nice person but she has one small problem. She keeps seeing a dead man and it unnerves her so much that she is seeing a psychiatrist who believes she's suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The police and the FBI believe that Stump Logan, known conspirator against the U.S. government and the suspect in the murders of Mary's parents died in the explosion at Russell Cove.

Nobody knows that Logan is still alive and Mary did see him three times when he was looking for an opportunity to kill her. He has now come up with a scheme to force Mary to come to him by kidnapping her goddaughter Lily. At first the police don't take the abduction seriously, thinking it is a domestic dispute. As Mary begins receiving e-mails of Lily, she realizes Stump lives and decides to use herself as bait, a risky move that might get her killed.

Sallie Bissell has written as extremely exciting crime thriller about an obsession taken to extremes and the tragic results that happen because of that compulsion. The protagonist comes across as a very sympathetic person, leading to readers rooting for her to triumph over the adversary she knows about and the one who has stayed in the shadows waiting for the right time to strike. CALL THE DEVIL BY HIS OLDEST NAME is a pulse pounding, adrenaline-pumping novel that the audience will remember long after finishing the last page.

Harriet Klausner

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mary Crow is back, August 9, 2004

By 

sospanyol (New Mexico, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Call the Devil by His Oldest Name (Mass Market Paperback)

...and for those who haven't discovered her yet, this book is a good place to start. Other readers have summarized the story and mentioned the intense suspense it creates in the reader. I'd like to add that Sallie Bissell's descriptions of the Appalachian mountains of North Carolina are uniquely fascinating and a wonderful addition to the works of other authors about the region. The strong protagonist of her novels, the very bright and modern Mary Crow, is among the most interesting in the mystery/suspense genre and is surely attracting a faithful following. Both Mary Crow and Sallie Bissell get better with each book in the series.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Buy this book immediately, March 5, 2004

By 

Ethan Cramer-Flood (New York City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Call the Devil by His Oldest Name (Mass Market Paperback)

Excellent, dramatic, nervewracking stuff. I highly recommend it. It's just what you need. The craftsmanship of the writing is at the highest level of the profession, and you cannot put it down.