Hocus
An Irene Kelly Mystery
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4.4 • 5 Ratings
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
For reporter Irene Kelly it's a terrifying investigation -- because it's so personal. Her husband, Detective Frank Harriman, has been kidnapped by terrorists who call themselves Hocus -- deadly manipulators who give Irene three days to meet their demands before killing their hostage. But Irene's biggest shock is yet to come -- as she uncovers her husband's history, and learns of a horrific crime committed a decade earlier. As seconds slip away, Irene willingly steps into a trap set by two madmen with a score to settle. And when she does, someone is going to pay for the sins of the past.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Sweet Dreams, Irene (1994), Southern California newspaper reporter Irene Kelly was abducted while pursuing a story. Burke again examines the pain suffered by kidnapping victims as Irene's police detective husband, Frank Harriman, is taken by Hocus, a terrorist group. The "takers," as hostage negotiator Thomas Cassidy calls them, are Bret Neukirk and Samuel Ryan. Twelve years earlier, when they were 10, they were kidnapped with--and witnessed the murders of--their fathers. Frank was the policeman who rescued and befriended them in the aftermath, when the boys suffered elective mutism--refusal to talk except to each other. They never revealed that a tall, white-haired cop assisted their kidnapper, Chris Powell, who was murdered shortly afterwards. Now Bret and Sam seek well-planned revenge by keeping Frank sedated on morphine until Irene goes to Bakersfield, where their fathers were killed, and discovers Powell's accomplice. Her investigation leads to three close friends of Frank's late father, who was also a policeman. Switching between past and present, Burke writes a well-paced mystery with a heartrending climax, but her strength is the sympathy and depth with which she describes how the trauma of abduction haunts the victims. Author tour.
