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Thriller Smacks Of Romance And Grit

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By K. SUE COLLINS

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 27, 2008

"Scream for Me," by Karen Rose (Grand Central Publishing, $17)

Fans of Mary Higgins Clark will adore Karen Rose's new novel, "Scream for Me," a suspense with a smack of romance. Readers will also draw comparisons between "Scream for Me" and James Patterson's "Kiss the Girls."

Daniel Vartanian, special agent in the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, is on the trail of a killer whose most recent crime resembles the violent murder of a teenager 13 years ago.

The past murder victim had a twin sister, Alex Fallon, whose tortured past is being revisited as her stepsister, Bailey, disappears, leaving her 4-year-old in Fallon's custody.

Vartanian's own past includes the recent demise of his family at the hands of his recently deceased serial-killer brother, Simon.

Simon left clues from the grave, as he possessed a series of photos of Fallon's murdered sister, as well as other unknown females.
Vartanian wonders how his brother was connected to these mysterious women.

Is Fallon's stepsister still alive? Why was she taken? Is there a more sinister connection between Fallon and the murdered women?

As a close relationship develops between Fallon and Vartanian, it becomes clear that their pasts are entwined through tragedy.

Rose's intended audience is the romance reader who wishes for a grittier mystery.

Although "Scream for Me" references, but never drifts into, the graphic details of the crimes, it remains an entertaining thriller certain to delight fans of Patterson and Clark.

K. Sue Collins of Tampa is a crime novelist.

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