The Printed Page

Title: Compulsion (An Emily Stone novel)
Author/website(s): Jennifer Chase
308 pages
Publisher: Outskirts Press
Publication date: October ’08
Genre: Suspense
Review book or pleasure reading: Pleasure reading
New-to-me author: Yes
Would I recommend this book: Probably
Would I read more from this author: I picked up the next Emily Stone right after finishing this one
Journal notes: Pleasure reading – no review.

Emily Stone doesn’t have a badge. But that hasn’t stopped her from tracking down some of the West’s most dangerous child-killers. Armed with a digital SLR camera, laptop computer and her trusty Beretta, Stone uses her innate gift for detective work to identify the perps — and then anonymously e-mail the evidence to the cops.

Now, the hunt for two brazen serial killers on the loose right in her own coastal California town threatens to expose Stone’s identity — unraveling her carefully constructed cover and jeopardizing her life’s work. But when she gets too close to the action, this razor-sharp hunter becomes the hunted. Cooperating with the handsome local police detective could be the only hope for stopping the rampage directed at unsuspecting young women — and saving herself. Can they piece together the clues in time?

Title: Dead Game (An Emily Stone novel)
Author/website(s): Jennifer Chase
376 pages
Publisher: Outskirts Press
Publication date: November ’09
Genre: Suspense
Review book or pleasure reading: Review book
New-to-me author: No
Would I recommend this book: Yes
Would I read more from this author: I would
Journal notes: I enjoyed both Compulsion and Dead Game. If you can get past the uneven writing style and editing of Compulsion there is a decent suspense thriller within the pages. Even though Compulsion was bit rough around the edges I wasn’t ready to toss aside Ms. Chase’s storytelling and was looking forward to reading Dead Game. Right from the start the writing style of Dead Game was vastly improved and a much more enjoyable read. Both books kept me turning pages as Emily and Rick pursue those who commit unspeakable acts only to find themselves prey for those very same characters. As this series continues to evolve I imagine it becoming one of my favorites and making it to my auto-buy list. And yes I’m looking forward to reading a third Emily Stone novel if there is one.

In her independent efforts to catch child killers, Emily Stone discovers the evidence that the cops can’t—or won’t—uncover. Now, this covert investigator is back on the hunt for the world’s most sick and twisted murderers. But even with help from ex-police detective Rick Lopez, this time she’s facing her most dangerous opponent yet.

The headlines in the San Jose Mercury News blare updates on a serial killer who seems able to slaughter with impunity. Men, women—it doesn’t matter; the victims serve only to satisfy a perverted need to kill. The killer watches the moment of death on multiple computer screens, over and over again. The only connection is that they’re all devotees of the latest video-game craze—a sophisticated brain-puzzler called EagleEye.

When the killer goes after Lopez’s law-enforcement mentor, Lopez and Stone decide to give the cops a little extra, unsolicited help. What follows takes them deep inside a shocking high-tech world, a kind of social-networking community for serial killers. But when they start getting too close to the truth, all hell’s going to break loose.

Now, Stone and Lopez become the killer’s next target as Stone must make a difficult decision to leave the ones she loves in an all-or-nothing effort for survival. Can they stay alive long enough to blow the whistle on this unlikely perpetrator?

(Dead Game was provided to me by the author. I was not paid and this pdf file has been deleted from my Kindle )

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