The trilogy continues... (Scream for Me - Karen Rose)

Member Name: Tracy_1127

Product:	Scream for Me - Karen Rose
Date:	23/08/09 (67 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: see review

Disadvantages: see review

Scream For Me is the next book in Karen Rose's trilogy after Die For Me. It continues with lots of the same characters and is connected but isn't a direct continuation of the storyline from the first book. I borrowed all 3 from a friend and have now read the first two.

Scream For Me has Special Agent Daniel Vartanian as the lead character along with Alex Fallon who we didn't meet in the first book and follows on from the point of 2 weeks after the conclusion of the first book. If you haven't read the first one it doesn't matter as this book works fine as a stand alone but it is better if you have as lots of the first book is referred to in this one.

Daniel Vartanian has some photographs his brother Simon took years ago of a bunch of teenage girls being raped by unknown men and he is determined to find out who the girls are and who the rapists were and bring them to justice. Alex Fallon's twin sister was murdered in Daniel's home town thirteen years previously and now her stepsister Bailey is missing and it's starting to look like whoever killed Alex's sister may be behind her disappearance. Bailey Crighton, Alex's stepsister, is being held captive by a monster who wants to know where she put something given to her by her brother. Meanwhile more women are turning up dead in exact copies of the murder thirteen years ago. Can Alex and Daniel find Bailey before it's too late? And can Daniel solve the current spate of murders?

This book has even more complicated twists and turns than the first one and I actually didn't put it all together until the end. Right from the start we know who's behind some of it as we are privy to the killer's name and thoughts but we are not told why he is doing this or who else is involved. There are alot of characters in this book and keeping up with them all is again difficult, just like the first one.

Karen Rose seems to like her main characters to fall in love and this book again follows that pattern which I would have preferred not to happen if I'm honest, it seems too easy and twee for the main characters to always fall for each other but at least this time she didn't have problems writing about the relationship and it flowed better than the first book in that respect.

The dark secrets from everyone's past seem to tumble out at a rate of knots in this book and make for fascinating reading, with murders and conspiracies all over the place. The character of Alex Fallon is actually a very intriguing one with real depth and a past you can believe but Bailey's character isn't so lucky in the way she's portrayed. Even though we should feel sorry for Bailey because of her murky, troubled past and because she is being held and tortured it just doesn't quite work that way and I ended up not really caring if she was found or not.

There's an element of psychology to this book and some scenes of regression under hypnosis which make for interesting reading. Neither of these aspects is written in much depth but enough to keep most readers interested I suspect.

The conclusion ties up loose ends well but was quite predictable to be honest but I'm not sure each thread of the story could have gone any other way so I didn't mind this.

Overall it was another good read from Karen Rose with the small sections divided by time and written from the viewpoint of various characters that mean you can read a little bit more each time without losing a whole day! It held my interest from start to finish with just those minor gripes about Bailey's character and the main characters falling in love again but those aspects didn't ruin the book for me and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I recommend it to thriller fans but I would recommend reading Die For Me first so you know who some of the characters are and what has gone before.

Available from Amazon for £4.02 or used from Amazon Marketplace for 35p.

Summary: Recommended