Review: A promising start to a new series!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 10 18, 2011
"Each time we face our fear, we gain strength, courage, and confidence in the doing."- Author unknown -"I was always looking outside myself for strength and confidence but it comes from within. It is there all the time."- by Anna Freud -3.5 stars.This is a promising start to a new series (The Mindhunters).Rich Chicago businessman Damian Manchester is frustrated by the authorities. Twenty years ago his teenage daughter Sam was kidnapped and murdered. They couldn't arrest her killer. Therefore, Damian founded a private organization that hunts serial killers.At the Society for the Study of the Aberrant Mind (SSAM), Damian brings together some of the best minds in the business to track down those killers. His team is privately funded and independent and has the flexibility to pursue cold cases. Damian hires experts in profiling (mindhunting), personal security, psychology, law enforcement, weaponry, and investigative techniques. The employees of SSAM come together to suit the needs of each case, and to find justice for victims of brutal crimes.The heroine of Only Fear, Dr. Maggie Levine, craves isolation after a violent incident a year ago. She was attacked by a patient and has to deal with the after-effects - she's scarred inside (her mind) and outside (her body). She thinks that hosting a radio talk show is the perfect opportunity to counsel and help people with their problems and to stay safe all at the same time. Unfortunately she is wrong. For a while she's getting phone calls from a guy called 'Owen'. Owen turns out to be the infamous 'Fearmonger'. Fearmonger is a sick serial killer. He thrives on fear and he 'studies' fear. And he wants to 'teach' Maggie a lesson. He begins to stalk her and he's killing people to get her attention. Our hero, Ethan Townsend, is a former Secret Service agent and skilled personal security expert. After a fatal incident on the job, he quits the Secret Service, and he finds a new task with Damian's SSAM. Ethan will need all his skills and knowledge to protect Maggie from a very evil villain.I did 'enjoy' reading this book. It's always good to discover new authors. The plot is good and nicely paced. I like the concept of different experts coming together to suit the needs of each case. Ms. Becker has an engaging writing style, and I think she created very likeable and believable characters. I cared for H/h and I was really invested in them. Ethan is a hard-ass guy but when you look a bit deeper, then you can see that he is such a caring and sweet guy. He's focused on Maggie's well-being and is gentle with her. Maggie...she's got spunk even though she has to deal with fear and panic attacks. She is a determined heroine. I really liked her too. Both of them had to deal with a lot of baggage and I felt that they fit perfectly. There are quite a lot of interesting secondary characters as well. Therefore, it's rather obvious that the author is planning to 'use' them for future stories in the Mindhunters series. On a personal note, I hope that the author will write Damian's story. I like him a lot! This guy is really intriguing. He's alreday 62 years old, but he doesn't seem all that 'old'. I want to read more about him, and I guess Lorena Castro would be the perfect match for Damian.This is a call to every romance or romantic suspense author out there: I WANT TO READ MORE GOOD STORIES ABOUT OLDER HEROES AND HEROINES!! Life and love/sexuality don't cease to exist only because we're not 30 or 40 anymore! I can't believe that I am the only one who's interested in reading such stories!?! Thumbs up if you think I am right! *smiles at herself*As I said before I enjoyed reading Only Fear - I have a complaint though. How Maggie got captured by the villain eventually was so easy and totally stupid. It sc**wed up the good plot and I was a bit disappointed. Pity!I'm looking forward to reading the sequel in the Mindhunters series!