Dutton sent me an ARC of this book to read for review (thank you). It was published in January, so you can find a copy at your local bookstore now.
This story is very unusual. The author gives us a messed up family. The father is a serial killer of women he picks up. One daughter can't feel pain at all, so she makes a career in pain management. She doesn't remember much of the past because she was too young. The other daughter ends in a psychiatric ward because she cut her little sister who couldn't feel it. She got out later and then she killed someone and was incarcerated again, this time in jail. She's continued killing there. These sisters and their past have something to do with the current murders. It's not them, who could it be?
The murder picks up his pace, D. D. is now a target, and the two sisters decide they will have to take things into their own hands. They feel they alone can kill the monster that is imitating their father. After all, the police aren't having much luck.
This is an intense read. As the cops dig through the girls' stories, they find everyone who ever knew them and question them, including other convicts in the jail. They know the girls' background and how they were raised, but they are still no closer to the killer. When the sister in jail escapes, the tension really racks up. I had no idea who the killer was. It was near the end before they got the crucial hints.
The ending is ugly, but somehow appropriate. Ms. Gardner made me care for the broken sisters, despite their flaws. It's hard to find something good in a killer, but the murdering sister was more than she seemed. This one made me sigh deeply when I finished it. It also made me think. What you see on the outside is not often the real person, there's always some secret tucked away...
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