A Review of "Now You See Me" [40]

Now You See Me by S.J. Bolton
Minotaur Press, ISBN 978-0312600525
June 7, 2011, 400 pages

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When Detective Constable Lacey Flint leaves her interview with a witness at a London apartment complex, all she is thinking about is getting in her car and driving home for the evening. And when she sees the well dressed woman leaning at the side of her car, at first she thinks the woman may just be looking for directions. That is until the woman turns around and Lacey sees that she has been horribly stabbed and in moments dies in Lacey's arms. At first, Lacey is just a witness, but when a journalist gets a letter from the killer, a letter that points out the similarities between this murder and the murders of Jack the Ripper and a letter that mentions Lacey by name, it is clear that her involvement is much deeper than just a haphazard coincidence

Of course, when we discover that Lacey wears what is almost a disguise to work, to make herself as plain as possible so that she will go unnoticed and that she keeps an 'escape' bag in her apartment, a bag she can grab if she must leave the life she has been living at a moments notice, we know that something else is going on. Lacey has a secret in her past and it is a secret she has worked very hard to keep that way. We don't know what it is...and we will not be fully sure what it is until the very last pages of the book...but the journey to discover her secret and how it ties in to these murders..because there will be more murders...will be a very entertaining one.

While I am not a particularly great fan of stories about Jack the Ripper, in this book the author has done a great job at tying together the historical story, with many facts about the murderer's tale that I never knew, together with a great modern day story, weaving it all together into one very good  mystery. It is full of all sorts of twists and turns, clues that will having you suspecting just about everyone in the book, with Lacey at the head of the line. Still Lacey is a great character and the reader can't help but like her, so  she can't be a murderer...can she? Best of all, just when you thing you may have finally figured it out, Bolton throws in just one more, final surprise.
Excellent to the very last page!

I have not read any of Ms. Bolton's other books...she has written three, Sacrifice, Awakening and Blood Harvest...but after reading Now You See Me, they will certainly be on my list.

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My thanks to Library Thing Early Reviewers and the publisher for a copy of this book.

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