Review: Nowhere to Hide by Nancy Bush

Nowhere to Hide 

By Nancy Bush 

Book #2 in the Nowhere series 

Romantic Suspense 

"Do unto others..." Carefully, he carves the words into their flesh. The victims are all young, brunette, pretty. But she's the one he really wants. The others are just a way to ease the rage that has festered for years, until the only thing that calms him is his knife slicing through skin. Detective September Rafferty - Nine to her friends - recognizes the artwork that arrives in the mail. She created it back in second grade. Now a killer's words are slashed across it in what looks like blood. He knows her. September's investigation leads to her old classmate, Jake Westerly. She wants to believe Jake is innocent. But trusting anyone could be her last mistake. Every slight, every slur, he remembers them all. They turned him into a monster, and now they will suffer for it. Starting with September, he'll show them that the past can never stay hidden, and the time of vengeance is at hand.

REVIEW:

September Rafferty, a new detective with the Laurelton, Oregon police department, is dealt a huge challenge as her first major case. They're trying to track a serial killer who carves "Do Unto Others..." on the victims, all who happen to resemble her. To further complicate matters, Jake Westerly, her first love (unrequited), is part of the suspect focus because of his relationship with one of the victims.

To say September comes from a dysfunctional family is an understatement (all of her siblings were given the birth month as their name). She and her twin brother, August, were disowned by their wealthy father because they both chose law enforcement as careers and also seem to be fairly estranged from their other siblings. The family dynamics are an important backdrop to the story as the killer seems to have established a connection to them in the way he reached out to September. While entertaining, it was a weak aspect of the story as some of their behaviors were tough to swallow.

September and Jakes' romance is one aspect that works. They have a history so there was no instant relationship at play. I liked both characters and September's naïveté matched her experience, or lack thereof. She made some serious blunders, especially at the climax, but they were believable and the ending was exciting.

It's an interesting story, somewhat weighed down by an enormous cast with quite a few red herrings. And, there's an earlier connected book, Nowhere to Run, that would be advisable to read first (I didn't). There's a surprise at the end to suggest a third book is coming but I'm not aware of one planned.