‘Blind Faith’ by C J Lyons

Published by Sphere, 

15^th February 2013. 

ISBN: 978-0-7515-5027-6

I hadn't heard of this author before but she certainly knows how to set up a-grab-you-by-the-lapels story.  The book opens with widow Sarah Durandt watching a horrifyingly perverted multiple child killer being executed by injection in a Texas prison facility.  It's over, she tells herself, as the man who killed her son as well as her husband finally succumbs to the lethal dose in his veins. 

It's over…  But of course it's not. All Sarah wants is to know is where the killer hid the bodies of her son and husband, but he wasn't telling.  All she can do now is, one way or another, to find them, by searching the forest and mountain where the murders took place.  She is determined not to rest until she's done and is helped in the search by a kindly lawyer, as well as the attractive police chief of the small town where she lives, and where she grew up. 

Things soon grow murky.  Nothing is what it appears to be.  Betrayal and further betrayal are the order of the day.  A terrifyingly callous and sadistic Russian criminal is let out of jail and immediately sets out to find Sarah, with the intention of torturing her to death.

There are multiple narrative strands in this book, all satisfyingly unravelled by the last page.  You'll enjoy this.
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Reviewer: Susan Moody
   

C J Lyons grew up in the mountains of central Pennsylvania, the heart of the rust belt, and lived there until she left home at 17 to go to college in North Carolina. Then it was on to Florida for med school and back to Pennsylvania for her pediatric residency at Childrens’ Hospital of Pittsburgh. Now a pediatric ER doctor turned suspense/thriller author. Writing stories was her way of dealing with the “real” world. Until her internship year in Pittsburgh. The year everything changed. As an intern she   worked and lived a life out of sync with the “normal” world. But then one of then interns was killed. Murdered in a horrific fashion. The stuff of nightmares. As always, she turned to writing to help her through her shock and grief. And wrote her first piece of crime fiction.

Susan Moody was born in Oxford is the principal nom de plume  of Susan Elizabeth Donaldson, née Horwood, a British novelist best known for her suspense novels. She is a former Chairman of the Crime Writer's Association, served as World President of the International Association of Crime Writers, and was elected to the prestigious Detection Club. Susan Moody has given numerous courses on writing crime fiction and continues to teach creative writing in England, France, Australia, the USA and Denmark.  In addition to her many stand alone books, Susan has written two series, on featuring PI Penny Wanawake (seven books) and a series of six books featuring bridge player Cassie Swan.