Customer Reviews

Vendetta's Victim: The Third Cassidy McCabe Mystery (Cassidy McCabe Mysteries)

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Another suspensful thriller! In Vendetta's Victim, her lovable characters, therapist Cassidy, and reporter Zach, are back, along with their cat and a bunch of new kittens. A sicko is on the loose infecting women with HIV virus and killing gay men. This time, I smugly thought I'd figured out the killer, only to be proven wrong. Ms. Matthews always stays just one step ahead and leaves us guessing until, at the end, she wraps everything up neatly. Besides containing great suspense, the novel also has good human interest with Cassidy's relationships with her SO, Zach, and her mother, Helen.

Alex Matthews has out done herself with Vendetta's Victim, the third book of this series. For those who enjoyed the first two novels, this one will blow you away! The smooth prose and smart plot are guaranteed to satisfy any mystery lover. Indeed, the eccentric, cat loving, peanut butter cup munching Cassidy has truly hit her stride, right through the startling conclusion. Cassidy's having family troubles. After thirty-two years of the single life, her mother's engaged to marry a jerk. Her boyfriend Zach won't even go to the engagement party. Her gay cousin has been murdered while having lunch with her. And her cat Starshine's three kittens have got to find homes before she looses every pair of panty hose she owns. Meanwhile, a woman named Dale angrily turns up on Cassidy's doorstep demanding to know why Cliff has referred her to Cassidy for therapy. Dale thrusts the letter from Cliff on Cassidy and storms of f into the night. Cassidy has never treated a man named Cliff. But when a second woman calls on Zach's private cell phone with a similar letter and story, Cassidy becomes suspicious of foul play. Soon Cliff is leaving Cassidy notes in her own kitchen, and her safety is once again compromised. Cliff has found a way to use AIDS as a weapon, and Cassidy finds herself tracking him before he can infect any more women. Cassidy McCabe is a refreshing breather in the world of detective novels where most heroines are larger than life, gifted with money and looks, giving them an edge most women can't identify with. Cassidy is too thin, somewhat insecure, and brash to the end. Her enduring habit of talking to Starshine the cat and eating peanut butter cups brings her into the real world, making her character markedly vivid. I thoroughly enjoyed the first two novels, but I must admit that this one is the best mystery yet! Keep them coming, Ms. Matthews!

Cindy Penn Reviewer

Cassidy McCabe is a psychotherapist who conducts her practice from an office in her home. Life should be great for Cassidy now. Her relationship with her boyfriend Zachary Moran is growing, they are now living together; her cat Starshine has three beautiful and healthy kittens, and her mother is getting married. But things don't always work out like they should. Suddenly, women Cassidy doesn't even know and has never met are confronting her. They all say the same thing; they accuse her of being in league with someone named Cliff and that Cassidy and Cliff are trying to destroy what is left of their lives. Cassidy finally manages to piece the story together. Cliff, it seems, is on some sort of `mission'. He is picking certain women who are all similar to each other, romancing them and then injecting them with his blood. Blood that is HIV positive. Now, for some unknown reason, he has involved Cassidy. Cliff claims to be a client of Cassidy's, but she has no client named Cliff nor any that are HIV positive that she knows of. Questions are racing through Cassidy's mind. Why is Cliff doing those horrible things? Why did he pick her? As Cassidy and Zach begin to put pieces together, things take an unexpected turn. Cliff starts leaving Cassidy personal notes, in her own house. Another delightful story from author Alex Matthews. Vendetta's Victim provides you with quite a few suspects to choose from, while at the same time carefully concealing the true identity of Cliff. As the Cassidy McCabe series continue the books get better and better. Ms. Matthews skillfully balances mystery and suspense with humor and relief.

Tracy Eastgate Reviewer

Alex Matthews is a terrific writer, her mysteries are well-plotted with believable characters and filled with suspense . Vendetta's Victim is a haunting story with a look at the dark pathways of a disturbed mind as well as complicated family relationships. Heroine Cassidy McCab struggles with work and home maintainence along with three over-active kittens and their exhausted mother. It's the kind of page turner that makes you take a bath instead of a shower because you can't read in the shower

After the abuse she took from her former husband, therapist Cassidy McCabe is astonished to find she emotes over her significant other, reporter Zach Moran. Still, she expects Zach to be likemost man and step out of line or abandon her. Reluctant to commit to a relationship anyway, Zach has struggled with Cassidy's independence streak.

Her obstinate nature puts Cassidy in danger when she becomes the obsession of a psychopath, who seems to know many details about her and has access to her home. Cliff has selected Cassidy to be his biographer as he punishes women who turned him into an evil monster. He picks up insecure women at funeral homes, wines and dines them, seduces them, and finally injects his HIV positive blood into their bodies. Cassidy believes that she knows Cliff and plans to end his reign of terror. Zach plans to keep the woman he loves safe from harm.

The third McCabe mystery, THE VENDETTA'S VICTIM, is a beautiful relationship drama as well as a frightening who-done-it. Alex Matthews' work is based on real life cases, giving a nasty authenticity to the chilling story line. All the suspects seem viable as the perpetrator due to sufficient motives on their parts. Though all her books are superb, with each subsequent novel, Ms. Matthews raises her lofty bar of excellence. Anyone who enjoys Jan Burke, should try the McCabe novels.

Harriet Klausner

Sounds like real life to me! An anonymous letter (in my case, e-mail from an obsessive stranger) from a man with a vendetta. Matthews draws on her career as a clinical social worker to develop the character, Cassidy McCabe. I'd hope she does not represent "everywoman" as I am certainly not like her, except for the love of cats. In the past, I had a mother cat and kittens but, finding loving homes for them for a hard task. Stat has never had kittens, and they scare her.

Cassidy has a live-in lover, Zach, rich enough to own a condo and can co-exist with a houseful of cats. She's a psychotherapist, he a reporter in Chicago. The threatening letter arrives hand-delivered and leaves her perplexed -- until a new client of hers reveals a duplicate of the correspondence sent to her, which warms the two women that "torment ... lies ahead" for them. The patient is afraid to go to the police. Not I -- nor the D.A., but their investigations didn't tell me anything I hadn't already figured out.

There is a definite "viciousness" in 'Cliff's warning as he becomes obsessed with her and starts stalking -- which is a crime worse than threats. Cassidy and Zach launch their own investigation, only to find themselves pawns in a cat-and-mouse chase. This, however, is a serious matter, and she has to take matters in her own hands.

Cliff turned out to be a genuine lunatic with paranoid delusions, with full-blown obsessiveness and narcissistic personality disorder, among other health problems which will lead to early death. He has a sadistic urge to hate women and refused to take responsibility for his own reckless behavior. He also has a split personality to boot: good boy/bad guy. Shades of SYBIL. He sought publicity and was on the t.v. news after killing a man and ending up in a mental hospital.

She had two previous mysteries, SATAN'S SILENCE and SECRET'S SHADOW previous to this one, and now has out three more, all featuring Cassidy, WANTON'S WEB, DEATH'S DOMAIN and CAT'S CLAW.
It was a bit involved, and I am against someone using their clients as "material for publication."