Customer Reviews

A Killing Rain

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Murder, kidnapping and mayhem are the ingredients P.J. Parrish uses to draw the reader into this latest thriller. Though a bit grisly at times, this book is a definite page-turner. Private Detective Louis Kencaid fights an uphill battle as he stays one step behind a diabolical killer. Parrish fans and suspense enthusiast alike will enjoy this fast-paced thrill ride of intrigue and gore.

What began as a simple date for Detective Kencaid quickly escalates into something sinister when his date Susan's estranged husband shows up for dinner. The absentee dad, Austin Outlaw has returned to reclaim his son and wife. Susan is having none of Austin's lies and is reluctant to allow eleven year old Benjamin out for ice cream with his father. The mother's intuition proves to be valid when her son and husband vanish. Kencaid's search for the two leads him to Austin's Import office. There he finds the police who have discovered the bodies of Outlaw's business partner and their secretary.

Parrish does an excellent job in making the reader despise Austin Outlaw's appropriately named sleazy character. Outlaw's greed sets in motion events that lead to several murders and endangers the life of his only child. Assisted efforts to rescue Ben are made by Miami Police Detective Joe Frye, a woman who can handle her own with the bad guys, yet has no trouble at all showing her softer side to Kencaid. The two detectives match wits with a fiendish villain that holds the key to Austin's silence and knows the idenity of the killers who kidnapped Ben.

This book is filled with lots of twists and turns that keeps the reader wondering what will happen next. The only thing that bothered me about the book was the graphic descriptions on torture inflicted upon some of the victims and the grisly murder scene. Overall I loved the plot and the character development. Parrish brought out real emotions in me as I read this novel. If you like a little horror mixed in with your mystery you'll love this book.

Reviewed by Felecia R. Ellis of Memphis RAWSISTAZ

P.J. Parrish brings to life an intriguing tale of action and adventure in his novel, A Killing Rain. The story begins with private detective Louis Kincaid finally getting a date with attorney Susan Outlaw. What he does not know is that this meeting will lead him on a suspense-filled journey that involves Susan's missing son and her estranged husband. The story follows Kincaid as he searches for the pair and as he unearths brutal murders and a horrible, intricate scheme.

P.J. Parrish has written a novel that is truly a thriller. Although there were a couple of instances where the story lulled, overall it was a page-turner. While the action was enjoyable, I also reveled in the character development. As a mother, I could feel Susan's angst in having her child missing. I felt a strong loathing for the "bad guy" Austin, who served as a complete contrast to the protagonist, Louis Kincaid. My only regret is that this is my first time reading a P.J. Parrish novel featuring Louis Kincaid and I believe that I would have enjoyed the story more if I had more background knowledge on the main character. Nevertheless, this was a good read and I recommend it to those who enjoy reading works that take them on a thrill ride.

Latoya Carter-Qawiyy
APOOO BookClub

After waiting a year for another P. J. Parrish novel about the exploits of Louis Kinkaid, I was not disappointed. A great read-great characters. great story-BRAVO!. Now I have to wait another year, alas.

Killing Rain by P.J. Parrish is another great thriller.

What I enjoy about this author's work is that he writes intelligent, complex thrillers.

The main character is a loner (by choice) although you feel, in this book, that he is starting to get weary of it. Enters the sexy Susan, a defense attorney who has turned Kincaid's eye. Unfortunatley, she also comes with lots of baggage.

Which is where the story really starts unfolding. We have kidnapping, murder and general mayhem.
The author has a way of making the action kind of gather momentum and yet, his storytelling is never boring.

This book is a must read for any lover of good thrillers.

Louis Kincaid, who is a private investigator and a loner by choice, would like to be more than friends with Susan Outlaw who is a defense attorney. She has issues with trusting and letting anyone get close to her. Louis finally asks her for a date and when he goes to pick her up, she has decided to cook dinner at home for him and Benjamin, her son from a previous marriage. Louis is a little disconcerted but goes along with the program. Just before dinner is finished, the husband whom Louis finds out is not really an ex, shows up and rains on their parade. Austin, who deserts his family for years at a time, uses his son to get at Susan. He demands that she let the child visit with him. Eleven-year-old Ben has missed his father and begs to go with him. Susan relents and then the trouble really starts. The two disappear after his business partner and secretary are found dead in their Miami office. Evidence points to Ben and Austin's deaths also but neither Louis nor Susan will give up hoping or searching for the missing duo.

P.J. Parrish weaves family dysfunction, love affairs, homosexuality, and the chase for the dollar into a great whodunit that will keep the reader's attention until the last page. There are interesting and informative visits to the swamps of Florida as well as to the prison where inmates may have information helpful to the investigation. The middle of the book was a bit slow as the search for Ben continued and each clue ended in a dead end, however, it is definitely a book the reader will want to finish in one sitting.

Reviewed by alice Holman
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

Kudos for P.J. Parrish's "A Killing Rain." I truly enjoyed this book. I do believe I've just found a new favorite detective in Louis Kincaid. "A Killing Rain" caught my attention from the very beginning. I truly found it hard to put down. A real page turner.

Private detective Louis Kincaid tried for over a year to get a date with Susan Outlaw; when he finally succeeds and goes to her house, she informs him they will eat here with her son Benjamin. Louis does not mind because he likes Benjamin. While the trio dines together, Susan's estrange husband Austin arrives after an absence of a few years. For her son's sake, she lets her spouse stay in her home.

A few days pass before Louis calls to see how Susan and Ben are doing. She frantically tells him that Austin and Ben are missing. After a search turns up nothing, Louis returns home to ponder his next move, but Austin waits for him there. A panicked Austin explains that his business partner and secretary were abducted and ultimately killed; he fears for his son. Louis believes Ben is bait to lure Austin into a deadly trap. He continues his search although the police believe the lad is dead.

P.J. Parrish is a fantastic thriller writer with his latest winner filled with plenty of action and chase scenes and the author insures the key cast seems genuine. Austen is an interesting antagonist as readers will feel dismay towards him for abandoning his son to save his own skin and feel further ire when he refuses to reveal to anyone how he became a target of a professional hitman though that might help save Ben's life. In some ways he steals the show, but in contrast to the courage of Louis, who loves Susan and Ben, placing himself in danger to save someone else's son turns A KILLING RAIN into an enthralling gothic tale in the middle of the Everglades.

Harriet Klausner

I am in love with this series and am happy that they are good from the first book to the last in the series. The authors have not lost sight of what we, as the fans, like. They are intelligent and suspenseful. Just love them!!

The Louis Kincaid Mystery series got me hooked from the first one. I have collected them all (I think). Not "edge of your seat" like some in my collection, but among my favorites.

This is the second Kincaid mystery I read, and I must admit to not having been able to stop reading. I began the book just before breakfast, read throughout breakfast, kept going all day as I ran errands using public transportation, then finished it just before arriving at home. My only quibble was with myself--why, oh why, hadn't I bought more Parrish novels to read after "Killing Rain"? Silly me. To take care of that problem, I purchased most of the rest of the series just a few days ago, and those books are waiting for me to devour them.

Back again to this book--Kincaid is a superbly drawn character. From the start of this book to its end, I found him enthralling. From his efforts to handle a date to the resolution of the book's main mystery, he made me want to get to know him as a human being. Parrish's writing is that good; Kincaid is someone I wish were human so that I could sit and talk with him. I'd like to know which moral lines he feels it's okay to cross, which experiences from his childhood make him so desperate to be a good friend/father/role model for the children he comes to love as an adult. I want to know why he doesn't just take his female cat in to get her "fixed."

Bottom line: I want to know Kincaid.

Added to that, there are other elements of this book that enthrall me. For one, the bad guys are just as interesting as the good ones. Now, that's not all that unusual, but I REALLY want to know more about these guys. I want to know about a killer who won't touch a child because of his own past experiences and how they've shaped him. I want to know about a killer whose soul is so damaged that he can't do much more than reshape his reality to fit it in the only box that allows him to keep breathing.

I guess I just want to KNOW, to find out more, and that always makes me want to keep reading an author's work

Kudos to Parrish!