Argh, I never jump into the middle of a book series, if I can help it. I like to start from the beginning, but in trying to read my first Iris Johansen book, an author’s name I’ve always seen on bookshelves, I stumbled into the middle of a trilogy. Womp womp. Well, it was good, and it makes me want to read the third entry, and perhaps circle back to read the first entry for completeness’s sake. Johansen’s 2013 book, Hunting Eve, certainly had the vibe of, “This seems like it’s picking up from a prior book,” and sure enough … Taking Eve was the first, with Silencing Eve the third.
I missed the whole “taking” part. Where this one starts, Eve is on the run from Doane, the psychotic father of Kevin, also a psychotic serial killer. Eve is a forensic sculptor, and Doane wants Eve to reconstruct Kevin’s skull because Kevin is dead. But there’s also some weird tie-in with the CIA and Doane having access to a bunch of agents’ names and field assignments, which is why the CIA is interested in capturing Doane (and his accomplice, Blick). I suppose if I had read the first book, I’d have a better understanding of that thread of the story.
Where Johansen’s book really shines is in the number of people looking for Eve, and how they all — through their own unique talents and skills, and collaborative efforts — manage to converge on an old mining town in Colorado where she’s trying to evade re-capture by Doane. First is Kendra, who reminded me of Patrick Jane of The Mentalist, one of my favorite t-shows back in the day. She’s a keen observer owing to being blind for the first 20 years of her life. It stretches believability, but her skillset is the most believable. Because there’s also Margaret, who is an animal whisperer; she uses her connection to animals and having spent three years in the wilderness to find clues. And then there’s Caleb, a minor character, but who has some sort of vague blood power to either weaken his enemies or heal people like Jane, Eve’s adopted daughter, so she can help in the search. It’s bizarre. There’s also Joe, Eve’s husband and ex-Navy SEAL; a CIA agent with ulterior motives (I’m guessing); and Zane, a deadly assassin who is also Eve’s long-forgotten about father.
For my first Johansen book, I thought it was well-done, even with some of the aforementioned goofiness — I liked the Margaret character and especially the rapport between her and Kendra — because the shifting points-of-view with it all building to the convergence on Colorado, interspersed with Eve’s efforts at evasion from Doane’s recapture, made for a quick read. If I do have a minor criticism, and I mean minor, but still, it made me giggle: Johansen loves to use the phrase “[Character] moistened [his/her] lips.” She used it at least half a dozen times, and by the end of the book, I was looking out for it.
But I digress. It was fun to knock another well-known suspense author off my list. I look forward to seeing how this story concludes in the third book!
Milam's Musings 