Review: The Seventh Victim by Mary Burton

by:  Mary Burton
published by:  Kensington Books
publish date:  February 5, 2013

IF AT FIRST YOU DON’T SUCCEED
It’s been seven years since the Seattle Strangler terrorized the city. His victims were all young, pretty, their lifeless bodies found wrapped in a home-sewn white dress. But there was one who miraculously escaped death, just before the Strangler disappeared…

KILL
Lara Church has only hazy memories of her long-ago attack. What she does have is a home in Austin, a job, and a chance at a normal life at last. Then Texas Ranger James Beck arrives on her doorstep with shattering news: The Strangler is back. And this time, he’s in Austin…

Lara Church was living in Seattle and on the brink of an exciting career when she was attacked by the Seattle Strangler.   Fate intervened and she survived the attack, but she was left with no memory of the event.  She spends the next several years traveling the country and learning to be a photographer.  She finally settles down in Austin with a stable job and a shot at a being a great artistic photographer.  Her life is turned upside down when she finds out the Seattle Strangler seems to be back and he seems to have his sights set on her.

This was the first book I've read by Mary Burton and I really liked it.  It's classified as Romantic Suspense, but it was high on the Suspense and low on the Romance which is how I like it.  In reality how many people fall in love when people are getting murdered around them?  The twists and turns of the book were well written and well paced.  I'll definitely be looking for more from Mary Burton in the future.

ABOUT MARY BURTON

New York Times and USA Today bestselling novelist Mary Burton is the author of nineteen novels including her latest thriller, THE SEVENTH VICTIM. Her highly praised books include Before She Dies, Senseless,Merciless, Dying Scream, Dead Ringerand I’m Watching You.

 

A Richmond native whose family’s roots run as deep as the nation’s, Mary still lives there. She attended Virginia’s Hollins University and began a career in marketing. Eventually, she decided the stories buzzing around her brain really did deserve her attention. She left her job and wrote her first novel, a historical romance published in 2000.

               

Mary wrote eleven more romance novels and three novellas before embracing the dark world of suspense. She even brought danger to her novella Christmas Past, which appears in the New York Times bestselling holiday anthology Silver Bells. Her story, Snow Maiden, was featured in the USA Todaybestselling collection A Hero’s Kiss.

Research led her to both the Henrico County Citizens Police Academy and the Richmond FBI Citizen’s Academy as well as Sisters in Crime’s Forensic University program and the Writers Police Academy in Jamestown, North Carolina, where the focus was on undercover work, autopsies, and the theories behind why people kill.

               

Mary writes full time. When not killing people, she spends time in the kitchen, practices yoga, enjoys her family and her miniature dachshunds, and completes courses toward her Baking & Pastry Arts Certificate at the University of Richmond’s Culinary Arts Program. She has just completed her next novel, NO ESCAPE, which will be published in November 2013.