Novel Out This Month by Becky Masterman Presents Fantastic Female FBI Agent!

"When I joined the FBI there weren't many female special agents
and the Bureau took advantage of that. A five-foot-three-inch
natural blonde with a preteen cheerleader's body comes in handy
for many investigations, so they were willing to waive the height
requirement. For a good chunk of my career I worked undercover,
mostly acting as bait for human traffickers and sexual predators
crossing state or international lines.
"I did the undercover work for nine years. That's about five years
longer than usual before agents burn out or lose their families.
Because I never married or had children I might have done more
time if it hadn't been for the accident that necessitated fusing
several vertebrae. It could have been worse; you should have seen
what happened to the horse.
"The surgery made problematic many job requirements--leaping
across rooftops...dodging knife thrusts...lap dancing. I could have
taken disability but couldn't see what life would look like outside
the Bureau, so the second half of my career was spent in
investigations. Then I retired.
"...No, that not the whole truth...
~~~

Rage Against The Dying

By Becky Masterman


Lisa Gardner called this book a must-read... Linwood Barclay was "Blown Away..." Me? I've been reading some great books this year and I'd count it one of my top favorites! And it's all because of the main character, Brigid Quinn... We know this woman: "I've sometimes regretted the women I've Been...Daughter, sister, cop, tough broad, several kinds of whore, jilted lover, ideal wife, heroine, killer..."

Other than a few related to her profession, we all know the feeling of being multiple personalities to multiple people and knowing that, many times, we keep secrets from one identity and never share it... "Keeping secrets, telling lies, they require the same skill." Brigid was 59 when this story happened...

She was retired, remarried, and keeping most of her past life a secret from her present husband. Because she was afraid of losing him, just as her first husband had turned away from her, not able to accept the life she chose and the blood that surrounded her life...

"...retirement didn't work out that well except for,
also at the advice of my therapist, auditing a class on
Buddhism at the university. That's where I met the
Perfesser. And shortly thereafter stopped seeing the
therapist.
"Mutual attraction was fairly immediate. During the
first lecture I watched the intense Dr. Carlo
DiForenza packing back and forth in front of the
class lecturing like a caged tiger who had eaten the
Dalai Lama. In the middle of Carlo's review of the
cyclical nature of karma, one of the girls, wearing a
tube top that squeezed her out of the top like toothpaste,
pressed her elbows together and said, "Oh, you mean,
like, 'wherever you go, there you are.'" The professor's
pacing stopped and he blinked out the window without
turning toward the speaker, a tiger distracted by a gnat.
"Contrary to what that bumper sticker says," I drawled,
"It's not precisely true."
"Carlo finally turned to the class and zeroed in on me.
His grin shot to my loins. "Go on," he said.
"It's my experience that it takes about a year to catch
up with yourself, so you don't have to worry as long as
you keep moving."
"He started blink again. I expected I was going to be
treated to a condescending retort. Then his grin
returned. "Who are you?" he asked, emphasis on
the "are."
My name is Brigid Quinn," I answered.
"We should speak of this over dinner,
Brigid Quinn."
~~~

So, of course, she didn't tell anybody about the man who had attacked her while she was rock hunting near home...

Or that she had killed him and then ran his vehicle with the body into the river...

She especially didn't tell anybody that she found information about herself in the van and that apparently she was not a random selection--even though she knew the man had wanted her because he thought she was older, due to her hair color!

All she thought about was that she didn't want her husband to know that she had killed...again...

Deputy Sheriff Max Coyote had become friends with Carlo since we had moved into our home. Max and Brigid had worked a few cases together when she was still still an active agent with the Bureau. When he came to visit, she knew that he was here on business. But she was still surprised when he told her that they had a serial killer in custody.

Floyd Lynch was a long haul trucker. He was stopped routinely, but a cadaver dog was at the stop and went crazy. They found a dead woman in his truck. She was in his sleeping area... She'd been...used...

At first he didn't confess to killing her, but then once he started, he went on and on! Then they found lots in the truck tied to The Route 66 killer...

Max had come for Brigid, because that case was the last she had worked...and had resulted in the death of a new agent under Brigid, who had gone undercover and never came back. Brigid immediately wanted in--she wanted to at least find the body and tell her father.

But before long, Brigid wasn't certain that Lynch was the killer of even the woman in his truck...but she knew that he had to have been in contact with the real criminal! Being in retirement wasn't going to stop her from working this case... All without telling Carlo what was really going on...

That wasn't working too well...

And then Max found the van and body of the man who she'd pushed into the river...

So how do you deal with the different parts of your life? Do you keep work and home totally separate? Especially if you're supposed to be retired? Brigid loved Carlo but refused to trust him enough to share the truth of her life... For a thriller, this not only complicates how and why Brigid gets involved, but also means that she's now being questioned by Max about the murdered man in the river...

Complex, Tense, Exciting and yet totally involved as a female can be in one hell of a mess! Brigid just may be the best female character I've found...so far this year (LOL)... I loved her and this serial killer hunt was like no other I've read!

Highly recommended for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is Brigid, whose name is really not Brigid...


GABixlerReviews

About the Author

BECKY MASTERMAN is the acquisitions editor for a press specializing in medical textbooks for forensic examiners and law enforcement. She grew up in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and received her MA in creative writing from Florida Atlantic University.  Becky lives in Tucson, Arizona, with her husband. This is her first thriller.

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