Customer Reviews

More Than You Know

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I was afraid I wouldn't like this book because I was crazy about the Charlie Plato Series and wanted more of those books. I'd heard this one was different. I'd also heard it was real good. And it was. Is. I absolutely couldn't put it down until I reached the end. The mystery was very well handled and all of the characters were believable. I liked the slightly darker plot. Now I'm afraid I have to wait a year for another book from this author!

The best of romance and suspense can be found in MORE THAN YOU KNOW: compelling characters, gripping suspense, forbidden love. Ms. Chittenden has elevated her work to a new level. Be sure to start this one well before your bedtime, because you won't be able to put it down until you turn the final page. Highly recommended.

Whenever you marry, the person always turns out to be a little different than who you expected. This is certainly true for Maddy when her new husband suddenly disappears and a handsome stranger comes asking questions about him. Nick CiaCia, pronounced Cha cha, is a man with a mission, to find the serial killer who took his father's life. Maddy's missing husband may well be that man. In an unlikely alliance, a the killer's wife becomes Nick's closest ally in the pursuit of the truth. Before too long, that closeness gets very close.

*** Pages turn quickly in this action packed suspenseful thriller. The lure of forbidden love combined with the horrified fascination of murder makes for a tension filled read. ***

She is a good storyteller. Although I have not read any of her books previously, something about this one seemed so familiar. Like the Avengers or a movie I saw a couple of years ago. At the age of thirteen, Nick had seen his father (a policeman) killed in a botched robbery and it had always been his great plan to someday find that serial killer and perform his own kind of justice.

Finally, he has a lead and he leaves the new wife, Maddy, to pursue it to the bitter end. They are victims of a hit-and-run driver in front of a convenience store; the other car came directly at them through a red light and if she had not pushed him and they both had fallen over a rock wall, they would have been killed. The car came up onto the sidewalk and skimmed the wall itself.

Maddy starts to worry about exactly who is this man she has married -- a stranger she desires, but discovering the truth is more than any woman would ever want to know. One day a handsome stranger approached her and asked questions about Nick, then suddenly Nick just disappears. Just what is going on?

Ms. Chittenden has written several novels but, for some reason, she thinks that stuff like upstream and downstream, north, south, east and west are esoteric. Come on, can any woman be that dumb! Other published books include SNAP SHOT (and yet she can't even take her own pictures), AS YEARS GO BY, and a series with DYING TO SEE YOU, DYING TO SING etc.

In Chicago thirteen years old Nick Ciacia learns that his father, a cop, was killed while stopping a holdup. At the funeral a stranger informs Nick that the Snowman committed the atrocity and is rumored to have moved to Seattle. Nick vows one day to avenge his father. Eventually he persuades his mother and grandmother to move to Seattle to start over.

Twenty-three years later, Nick is a FBI agent who takes leave because he has a tip that provides him finally with a name to the Snowman. He trails Bart Williams, a German immigrant who changed his name upon gaining citizenship, but loses the man at a mall. Nick simply changes prey and follows the wife Maddy instead whom he previously met at an art gallery. When Bart vanishes, Nick persuades Maddy to let him help her find him. They follow Bart's work trail along the West Coast where he sells pharmaceutical products. Eventually a Realtor finds him dead, allegedly a suicide victim. As Nick and Maddy continue to follow clues to determine whether Bart was the Snowman, they fall in love but she learns the truth about his quest making trust an issue.

Romantic suspense readers will have a field day (and night) with the delightful MORE THAN YOU KNOW. The story line focuses on tracing the missing husband as much as the romance. However, Once Bart is found dead (about the midpoint), the tale continues to be a terse thriller, but loses some of the momentum especially the intensity between the lead couple. Fans of Meg Chittenden will welcome back his author who was missed during her sabbatical.

Harriet Klausner