From Publishers Weekly Some twists and turns in Hoffman's stand-alone thriller may leave readers scratching their heads, but the suspense ratchets up to such a high pitch that most will keep flipping pages till the end. Coincidentally, the 16-year-old daughter of Bobby Dees, a Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) special agent supervisor, a leading expert on discovering the fate of missing children, has been gone without a trace for almost a year. But that doesn't keep Bobby from being one of the best at his job. His immediate concern is the fate of 13-year-old Lainey Emerson, who's in the hands of a sadistic serial kidnapper known as "Picasso" for his bizarre depictions of his victims delivered to TV reporter Mark Felding. While Picasso taunts Bobby, Felding turns up the media heat on the investigation. Hoffman (Plea of Insanity) paints a scary picture of sexual predators, vulnerable teens, and the shared hunting ground/playground that the Internet provides. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From They are, indeed, pretty little things: naive, vulnerable teenage girls who have gone missing, some lured by Internet predators, others runaways or throwaways. One of them is Katy, the daughter of Bobby Dees, a high-profile investigator for Florida’s Crimes against Children division. When Bobby begins to investigate the disappearance of a 13-year-old girl, his own loss threatens to overshadow his duty. Thanks in part to goading by an annoying reporter, Dees’ instincts eventually kick in, and he takes off in pursuit of a serial killer whose paintings of mutilated victims earn him the nickname Picasso. Could Katy be among the psycho’s trophies? The thought pushes Dees to the edge, while Picasso continues to kill. Hoffman, who doesn’t spare the gore, delivers some page-turning action here, incoporating an emotionally charged view of the enormous problems faced by missing teens (and those who hope to find them). There are some bumpy patches in the narrative, but this is still entertaining and suitable both for fans of conventional mysteries and for those who prefer high-adrenaline thrillers. --Stephanie Zvirin Thirteen-year-old Lainey Emerson is the middle child in a home police are already familiar with: her mother works too much and her stepfather favors his own blood over another man’s problems—namely Lainey and her wild older sister, Liza. So when Lainey does not come home from a Friday night out with her friends, it is dismissed by the Coral Springs P.D. as just another disillusioned South Florida teen running away from suburban drama and an unhappy home life. But FDLE Special Agent Bobby Dees, who has headed up the Department’s difficult Crimes Against Children (CAC) Squad in Miami for more than a decade, is not quite so sure. Nicknamed “The Shepherd” by colleagues, he has an uncanny ability to find the missing and bring them back home— dead or alive. Haunted by the still-unsolved disappearance of his own daughter, Bobby recognizes the all too familiar up-swell inside him, the gut feeling that Lainey Emerson is no runaway. A search of her computer and a talk with her best friend reveal Lainey was involved in a secret internet relationship, spawned over a chat room, and nurtured through untraceable instant messages. Bobby fears she may be the victim of an online predator, and when chilling hand-painted portraits of other possible victims are mailed to a local television station, he realizes she may not be the only one. The faceless monster from cyberspace, who has gone to remarkable lengths to stay invisible, now seeks a captive audience. And it is Bobby Dees he wants watching. Can Bobby win this deadly game of cat and mouse, one involving the most prolific killer he has ever encountered? And will he be able to save Lainey and the others before it is too late?
From international bestselling author Jilliane Hoffman comes a new thriller that explores the real life threat of an on-line predator.
Publishers Weekly
Some twists and turns in Hoffman's stand-alone thriller may leave readers scratching their heads, but the suspense ratchets up to such a high pitch that most will keep flipping pages till the end. Coincidentally, the 16-year-old daughter of Bobby Dees, a Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) special agent supervisor, a leading expert on discovering the fate of missing children, has been gone without a trace for almost a year. But that doesn't keep Bobby from being one of the best at his job. His immediate concern is the fate of 13-year-old Lainey Emerson, who's in the hands of a sadistic serial kidnapper known as Picasso for his bizarre depictions of his victims delivered to TV reporter Mark Felding. While Picasso taunts Bobby, Felding turns up the media heat on the investigation. Hoffman (Plea of Insanity) paints a scary picture of sexual predators, vulnerable teens, and the shared hunting ground/playground that the Internet provides. (Sept.)
Special Agent Bobby Dees knows what grief feels like. He understands the pain of losing a child. And he'll do whatever he can to prevent it from happening again.The phone call that comes on a Sunday morning will take him away from his insular world of grief and sleepless nights – and into a far darker place. A young girl, Elaine Emerson, has gone missing and only Dees has a chance of finding her.It seems that Elaine was last seen waiting to meet her boyfriend - a mysterious figure she met secretly on the internet, who goes by the name of "El Capitan", and whose reality is as cruel and chilling as the worst thing Dees can imagine... After thirteen-year-old Lainey Emerson disappears after a Friday night out with her friends, Special Agent Bobby Dees, who is still haunted by the unsolved disappearance of his own daughter, fears that she may be the victim of an online predator
