TEST
Anne Frasier first captured my attention with Cool Shade, a book written under the name Theresa Weir. Her edgy characters, dark stories and good use of settings make her books page turners for me and, even though Play Dead has a few rough spots, it is still well worth reading.
Someone in Savannah is killing in a particularly horrifying fashion by poisoning people with a substance that mimics death and puts its victims in a zombie-like state before they finally die. The fate of the living dead has spread terror and rumors of voodoo throughout the city and the nature of the killings has also triggered many disquieting memories for Savannah detective Elise Sandburg.
Though Elise was abandoned in a local cemetery as a baby, she is rumored to be the daughter of Jackson Sweet, a root doctor and conjurer. Once dabbling in root medicine herself as a teenager, Elise abandoned it for the more comfortably logical world of police science. However, the voodoo aspect of the killings currently gripping Savannah forces Elise to come to terms with her heritage and seek answers in a realm she is afraid to know or try to trust.
It quickly becomes apparent that the killings are rooted in the happenings of Black Tupelo, a section of the city that seems to be dominated by the notorious conjurer and madam Strata Luna. Elise and her partner David Gould find themselves drawn deeper and deeper into the sinister world of Black Tupelo. For Elise, it is a discomfiting journey and for her partner, seeking refuge from horrible events in his past, his time in Black Tupelo brings an uneasy sort of escape.
Frasier’s mystery is chilling and, for most of the book, unpredictable. Both Elise and David are unique characters. Though each is tortured by an inner conflict, the main tension in the story is derived from the suspense plot, not from any romantic attraction. The folk magic element of the crimes forces Elise to come into contact with a subculture within Savannah she thought she had permanently left behind. While this inner turmoil is somewhat interesting, Elise’s reasons for fleeing her heritage never really felt real to me. The action was very well-rendered, but more insight into Elise’s inner world and family life would have made this tale far richer.
David’s inner struggles, on the other hand, are drawn very well. The secrets of his past continue to haunt him and this manifests itself in a variety of ways throughout the book. His struggle to escape or to cope – it’s sometimes difficult to tell which – leads him into the world of Black Tupelo. For him, it is unfamiliar territory, and both his case and the conflicts of his life keep drawing him in ever further. This world both intrigues and repulses him and David’s attempts to come to terms with the world around him make for a very engaging plotline.
Even though David and Elise find themselves working in close quarters, readers should be aware that while Theresa Weir wrote romantic suspense, Anne Frasier writes straight suspense. Play Dead is definitely a straight suspense novel rather than a romance and, given the intense nature of the story, this is the most plausible way to structure the book. It would have been very difficult to address all the issues covered here with the addition of a well-written romantic plot on top of it all.
While more could have been done to set up the back story in this novel, it is overall a good suspense tale and, even though the setting is interesting, Frasier’s tense plotting is what makes this story work. If you enjoy a good thriller, this is certainly one to try.
Grade: B
Book Type: Suspense
Sensuality: Subtle
Review Date: 30/05/04
Publication Date: 2004
I enjoy spending as much time as I can between the covers of a book, traveling through time and around the world. When I'm not having adventures with fictional characters, I'm an attorney in Virginia and I love just hanging out with my husband, little man, and the cat who rules our house.
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Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.