At 59, ex-FBI special agent Brigid Quinn has been retired
for four years. Her career was legendary, but also with a
lot of controversy, and she's still obsessed with the
sexual-predator serial killer case she could never solve --
the notorious Route 66 Killer. Struggling to come to terms
with losing a young female agent during that investigation,
Brigid lives close by in a suburb of Tucson, Arizona, with
her new husband.
When local authorities arrest trucker Floyd Lynch, who
professes to be the long-elusive Route 66 Killer, Brigid
finds herself drawn into the case at the request of young
FBI agent Laura Coleman. Portions of Lynch's confession
don't add up to Coleman, and once she brings them to
Brigid's attention, she agrees. However, they can't
convince anyone else in authority, and Coleman is removed
from the case. But not before Brigid starts her own
personal investigation, which could prove deadly.
Just two days later, Brigid is brutally attacked and then
later gets targeted by a shooter. It's obvious someone
wants her dead, but who and why? Could it be the real Route
66 Killer? When she's unable to reach Coleman for several
days, Brigid fears she's been abducted. Using her
analytical mind and multifaceted imagination, Brigid
searches for Coleman, as well as the real Route 66 Killer,
even as she slips further away from the personal life she
made for herself. What she discovers is nothing less than
appalling.
RAGE AGAINST THE DYING is an edgy, disturbing and deeply
memorable thriller for debut author Becky Masterson.
Masterson pumps up the suspense with each turn of the page
as the complex case progresses, but some tension is lost
during extended passages about Brigid dealing with her home
life. That said, I would still be compelled to read
Masterson's next thriller.
"Keeping secrets, telling lies, they require the same skill.
Both become a habit, almost an addiction, that's hard to
break even with the people closest to you, out of the
business. For example, they say never trust a woman who
tells you her age; if she can't keep that secret, she can't
keep yours. I'm fifty-nine." Brigid Quinn's experiences in
hunting sexual predators for the FBI have left her with
memories she wishes she didn't have and lethal skills she
hopes never to need again. Having been pushed into early
retirement by events she thinks she's put firmly behind her,
Brigid keeps telling herself she is settling down nicely in
Tucson with a wonderful new husband, Carlo, and their dogs.
But the past intervenes when a man named Floyd Lynch
confesses to the worst unsolved case of Brigid's career--the
disappearance and presumed murder of her young protgee,
Jessica. Floyd knows things about that terrible night that
were never made public, and offers to lead the cops to
Jessica's body in return for a plea bargain. It should
finally be the end of a dark chapter in Brigid's life.
Except...the new FBI agent on the case, Laura Coleman,
thinks the confession is fake, and Brigid finds she cannot
walk away from violence and retribution after all, no matter
what the cost. With a fiercely original and compelling
voice, Becky Masterman's Rage Against the Dying marks the
heart-stopping debut of a brilliant new thriller writer"--
