review: ANGEL FIRE, Lisa Unger

• 
  writing as Lisa Miscione
  
• first published 2002
• #1 in 4 Lydia Strong books
• format Kindle (Amazon)
• print length 306 pages
• ASIN : B004P8JMZM
• Publisher : Crown (August 9, 2011)

Synopsis  (Amazon)

The gripping New York Times bestselling debut that established Lisa Unger, writing as Lisa Miscione, as a novelist to watch!

The childhood murder of Lydia Strong's mother has turned her into a woman obsessed with bringing brutal killers to justice. The reclusive, bestselling true-crime writer and investigative consultant has made a life out of chasing monsters. And her powerful intuitions rarely fail her.  

When three adults--loners, drifters--go missing, no one seems to notice except for Lydia. Enlisting the help of her friend, former FBI agent Jeffrey Mark, Lydia starts an investigation of her own. But when someone raises the stakes and goes after Lydia--just as fifteen years ago when she put the FBI on the trail of her mother's killer--the real hunt begins.

My take

It wasn't until earlier this year that I read Lisa Unger's second book in this series. Lydia is constantly haunted by her mother's own violent death when she was a teenager. She solves mysteries and violent crimes and then writes about them, which makes her a target for those who feel wronged. She is fighting her own attachment to ex-FBI agent Jeffrey Mark who rescued her when her mother had been killed. 

A sound read.

My rating: 4.4 

I've also read

4.3, BLACKOUT
4.7, BEAUTIFUL LIES
4.4, THE DARKNESS GATHERS  #2 Lydia Strong

Review: THE DARKNESS GATHERS, Lisa Unger

• Release Date: 2003
• Series: Lydia Strong #2
• source my local library via Libby
• author web site

Synopsis (author web site)

Fresh from a tour promoting her last case, reclusive true crime writer Lydia Strong receives an anonymous cry for help, begging her to find and protect Tatiana Quinn, "and all the other girls in need of rescue." Maybe the plea strikes close to her heart; maybe her investigator's intuition starts buzzing. She takes it on.

But this simple case of a missing teenager soon becomes much more. Someone wants Lydia to drop the case, someone powerful, someone anxious enough to engineer the re-appearance of one of Lydia's first--and most dangerous--adversaries. Now, in addition to tracing the roots of Tatiana's disappearance on a trail across the country and eventually overseas, Lydia must find the man who wants her dead, his unfinished business from years ago.

Excerpt

"The voice on the tape was thin and quavering. Lydia Strong had to rewind the tape and turn up the volume. In the background, she could hear the wet whisper of cars passing on rain-slicked roads and, once, the loud sharp blast of a semi's air horn. "It's Tatiana," the message began, followed by a nervous little noise that was somewhere between a giggle and a sob. "Are you there...please? I can't believe she's doing this to me." She went on in another language, something throaty and harsh, Eastern European-sounding. Then she switched back to English. "I'm not supposed to call anyone. I don't have much time. I'm somewhere in—" The connection was broken."

My Take

Tatiana Quinn, rebellious teenager, has disappeared from Miami and her billionaire father Nathan Quinn is anxious to get her back. So far attempts to find her have been unsuccessful. Crime writer Lydia Strong is contacted first of all by a message on her phone and then by a Florida detective who says he has something for her. Lydia doesn't usually take this sort of case on but this one appeals to her.

Once in Miami Lydia becomes convinced that the appeal and the subsequent tape recording have been sent to her by the Quinn's home help. Lydia is about to quiz her when a black Mercedes mows her down and kills her. Actions like this tend to make Lydia all the more convinced to continue her investigation. One of the police investigators disappears and then is found dead. Then the remaining investigator becomes unwilling to talk and advises Lydia and her partner Jeffrey Mark to drop the investigation and return to New York. It is obvious that there is much more to this case and to top it all Lydia becomes convinced that one or both of Tatiana's parents are involved.

Quite a long read, with a number of twisted plot strands.

My rating: 4.4

I've also read
4.3, BLACKOUT
4.7, BEAUTIFUL LIES

Review: BLACK OUT, Lisa Unger

Bantam, Random House Australia, 2008, 358 pages, ISBN 978-1-86235-594-3

BLACK OUT begins very provocatively:
Today something interesting happened. I died.

Annie Powers named her daughter Victory, a symbol of a past she thought she had conquered and left behind. In another life in a very dysfunctional family where her mother fell in love with a murderer and rapist on death row, Annie was part of traumatic events she has tried hard to forget. But now her past is catching up with her. A man she thought was dead, the father of her child, has come back for her, and Annie can no longer tell whether her memories are true or delusions.

There can be no doubt to the reader that Annie Powers has a psychotic problem, a dissociative disorder. At times she sees her former persona as a separate person, someone she hates and has tried to destroy. By the time of her death mentioned in the opening lines, she is no longer sure of who she can trust.

Lisa Unger explores Annie's vulnerability as she tries to leave her former life behind. She paints a disturbing picture of Annie's mind as those around her, even those she is closest to, try to persuade her that what she knows has happened hasn't.

The reader may find Unger's technique of slotting in episodes from different time frames difficult to cope with. There are three major slices of time: the present, the recent past, and the deep past; and the book plunges from one to the other with little or no warning, and only contextual clues.

This was an extraordinary book: very provocative in its exploration of how a person with a dissociative disorder may see the world. Looking at it as a thriller, I did find that some of the events stretched the bounds of credibility.

My rating: 4.3

You can read quite a considerable part of the book online, in fact the Prologue and the first 7 chapters, in my copy that is the first 42 pages. There is also a synopsis to read, and a trailer to watch.

Lisa Unger has written 4 books:
Beautiful Lies (2006)
Sliver of Truth (2007)
Black Out (2008)
Die for You (2009)

I read BEAUTIFUL LIES shortly after it was published and rated it at 4.7.
My synopsis:
The day Ridley Jones rescues a little boy from the path of an oncoming vehicle is the day her own life changes forever. After the initial flurry of media coverage, Ridley is contacted by someone who thinks she is his daughter. But Ridley already has parents. Her father is a well respected pediatric surgeon, so who is this stranger?