Julie's Review: Quicksand

Summary: The action-packed 12th installment in bestseller Johansen's saga featuring forensic sculptor Eve Duncan (after Stalemate) is also a sequel of sorts to Pandora's Daughter, which chronicled the life of Megan Blair, an Atlanta physician with burgeoning psychic abilities. Intertwining the two disparate story lines intensifies both, as Johansen pits her two courageous female protagonists against a vicious serial killer who claims to have murdered Eve's seven-year-old daughter, Bonnie, years earlier. When Eve's love interest, Atlanta police lieutenant Joe Quinn, tracks down elusive child predator Henry Kistle to a small town in Illinois, Quinn alerts the local authorities and sets off a series of bloody events that lead Eve and Megan Blair to a remote area in the Okefenokee swamp where they'll either discover the whereabouts of Bonnie's body—or come face-to-face with a psychopath bent on killing and burying them all in unmarked graves. The adrenaline-fueled narrative will keep Johansen fans eagerly turning the pages. ~amazon.com

Review: I truly enjoy the Eve Duncan series and Quicksand (Eve Duncan Forensics Thrillers) is definitely not a let down. It starts off quick and never stops. In Quicksand, we are again on the hunt for the killer of Eve's daughter, Bonnie. This time it leads us to Henry Kistle and Eve playing a dangerous cat and mouse game. I had a VERY hard time reading this book at first because of the subject matter...a serial killer who "specializes" in children. I couldn't read it before bed because it gave me nightmares. I made my way through it because I knew that justice would be served in the end.

Quicksand brings back some of my more recent favorite characters from Ms. Johansen's books Stalemate and Pandora's Daughter Megan and Philip Blair, Montalvo and Miguel. I love how she weaved all these characters into one book. Of course Joe and Jane were still in the story. For Eve and Joe, their relationship is at a crossroads. You can tell that decisions will need to be made but those are for another book.

Eve made me mad at times during the book because I think when it comes to the search for Bonnie's remains she can be a bit obsessive but as a mother I empathized with her as well. I can also see where Jane and Joe come from regarding their feelings about the continuous search. I do like the books a bit more when they deal with cases other than trying to find Bonnie because at some point they are going to have to find resolve that plot line and move forward.

There is pretty good twist at the end of the book that I sensed was going to happen but was happy it did. I think it sets up a new direction for the series.

If you like fast paced, intense thrillers than Quicksand is for you. I do think you would have a better understanding of the characters if you read Stalemate and Pandora's Daughter first but it's not completely necessary.

Final Take: 4/5