December 1, 2023
Solvinic debuts with a book that was snapped up in a preempt. Anna's childhood memories of her serial killer father were suppressed through hypnosis, and she grew up to become a cop. After she kills a man in the line of duty, those memories return--and there's another serial killer on the loose. Prepub Alert.
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Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
Starred review from February 1, 2024
DEBUT Solvinic delivers a terrific thriller that readers will find hard to believe is her first novel. Anna Koray, a sheriff's lieutenant, kills someone in the line of duty and, while recuperating, begins to experience the return of locked-away memories. Anna has long lived under an assumed name to escape her past, as her father was a notorious serial killer. When she should be on leave from work, she can't help herself from investigating a mysterious death with parallels to her father's style of displaying his victims' bodies. Anna's father has been executed, but whoever is responsible for the new spate of murders count seems to know way too much about her father's MO for it to be a coincidence. Though Anna has started a new life, her search for answers puts her future in jeopardy. VERDICT A mix of Karen Dionne's The Marsh King's Daughter and Thomas Harris's The Silence of the Lambs, this impressive novel spotlights the difficulty of escaping a troubling past. Add some supernatural elements, and the result is a tale to remember.--Jeff Ayers
Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
March 15, 2024
Or The Killer's Daughter, since the heroine's father was executed years ago for strangling 27 women. That's a formidable legacy to deal with, and Det. Lt. Anna Koray, of the Midwestern Bayern County Sheriff's Office, has always struggled to keep her head above water. After her father, Stephen Theron, was identified as the Forest Strangler and arrested and her mother, Sheila Fredericks Theron, put her up for adoption and went into the Witness Protection Program, Elena Theron took the name of her loving foster parents and continued what turned into years of therapy with psychiatrist Barbara Richardson. The demons she's kept at bay come roaring back when, called to a scene of domestic abuse, she kills the husband who's already shot his wife to death and tries to do the same to Anna. The attendant trauma leads to uneasy reunions with Nick Kohler, an ER doctor who'd wanted more than she could give, and with Dr. Richardson, who succeeds in unlocking the vault of Anna's repressed memories. All this is a prelude to the main event: the discovery of another series of female corpses arranged as ceremoniously as Stephen Theron's victims. Are these murders the work of a copycat killer, or of Veles, the Forest God? Since the rare DNA variant Theron carried has turned up on the new crime scenes, is it possible that he wasn't executed after all but escaped? Or could Anna, who's surely carrying that variant herself, be unwittingly channeling the spirit of her father or of Veles? First-timer Solvinic provides more questions than answers in a messy, compelling tale.
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March 18, 2024
Criminologist Solvinic debuts with a propulsive thriller about a young detective’s harrowing family history. Anna Kory, a lieutenant with a rural Midwestern sheriff’s department, is a good cop—empathetic and efficient. One night, she’s called to a domestic disturbance, where she’s shot and wounded by a wild-eyed man. Anna fires back, killing him. The incident awakens long-repressed memories from her childhood: Anna’s father, Stephen, was the “Forest Strangler,” a serial killer who kidnapped young women and ritualistically killed them as offerings to the “Forest God.” After he was arrested, a nine-year-old Anna was adopted by a family in a different state and her memories were erased via hypnosis. Not long after the adult Anna is released from the hospital following the shooting, a young woman is found dead with her body arranged in a manner that echoes the Forest Strangler’s slayings. As Anna investigates, she starts receiving disturbing anonymous emails that raise a terrifying question: Is the young woman’s murder the work of a copycat, or has her father returned? Solvinic is remarkably assured for a first-timer, lacing the action with elegant descriptions of the rural landscape and enough valid suspects to keep the pot boiling. Readers will look forward to this promising suspense author’s next outing. Agent: Caitlin Blasdell, Liza Dawson Assoc.
April 1, 2024
In this hypnotic page-turner, Deputy Sheriff Anna Koray answers an emergency call that goes wrong, and as she recovers from her wounds, she has strange dreams of a dark forest where her father is covered in blood and surrounded by dead, young women covered with flowers. She seeks help from her former child psychiatrist, who helped 10-year-old Anna suppress horrific memories when she discovered her beloved father was the Forest Strangler, a feared serial killer. When flower-bedecked corpses of young women are found in her county, Anna lives in fear that her background will be discovered. Could her executed father somehow still be alive, or is there a copycat killer? Or, with her memory blackouts, could she be following in her father's footsteps? With the haunting darkness of the forest calling to her, Anna needs to face the evil in men and in herself to discover the real killer. This atmospheric and haunting mystery will keep the reader guessing to the very last page. A must-read for lovers of serial-killer thrillers and mysteries with a darker edge.
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