‘Don’t Look Back’ by Erica Spindler

Published by Sphere,
8 August 2013.
ISBN: 978-0-7515-5191-4

Lizzie-Bordenesque thriller about Kat McCall, a young woman returning to the town where ten years ago she was accused and subsequently acquitted of the vicious slaying of Sara, her elder sister.  The town thinks she's guilty.  She knows she's not.  She is determined to find justice for Sara, since the killer must still be out there somewhere.

 

As a rebellious kid, running with the wrong crowd, wanting to get at her inheritance, grounded by her sister, Kat had the means and the motive, let alone the opportunity to beat her sister to death with a baseball bat.  But it wasn't her.  The local chief of police is so convinced of her guilt that he never bothered to look any further.  Now he is being pushed into a corner by Luke, his own son, who has become acting chief while his father takes sick leave.  He too is convinced of Kat's innocence. Kat is shunned by the townsfolk, even threatened, but refuses to leave.  Together, she and Luke finally unearth the secrets which led to the original injustice.

There was some confusing now-and-back-then story-telling, but I got a grip on it and was thoroughly immersed in the narrative.

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Reviewer: Susan Moody

The  book is published in the USA under the titles Justice For Sara.

Erica Spindler  was raised in Rockford, Illinois, Erica had planned on being an artist, earning a BFA from Delta State University and an MFA from the University of New Orleans in the visual arts. In June of 1982, in bed with a cold, she picked up a romance novel for relief from daytime television. She was immediately hooked, and soon decided to try to write one herself. She leaped from romance to suspense in 1996 with her novel Forbidden Fruit, and found her true calling. Her novel Bone Cold won the prestigious Daphne du Maurier Award for excellence. A Romance Writers of America Honour Roll member, she received a Kiss of Death Award for her novels Forbidden Fruit and Dead Run and was a three-time RITA® Award finalist.  Publishers Weekly awarded the audio version of her novel Shocking Pink a Listen Up Award, naming it one of the best audio mystery books of 1998.  Erica lives just outside New Orleans, Louisiana, with her husband and two sons and is busy at work on her next thriller.

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.