BOOK REVIEW DESKCRIME
By Marilyn Stasio
FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES
BOOK REVIEW DESK
CRIME
By Marilyn Stasio
April Smith, who wasn't shy about breaking genre conventions in her first crime novel, ''North of Montana,'' puts her foot through more windows in GOOD MORNING, KILLER (Knopf, $24). This kidnapping thriller starts off like most kidnapping thrillers, with the abduction of a pampered teenager, 15-year-old Juliana Meyer-Murphy, that has the local cops running around in circles. But we know we're in uncharted territory here when Juliana returns home, raped, battered and deeply traumatized, and Ana Grey, the F.B.I. agent assigned to the case, is so distressed by the girl's condition that she ignores procedures and starts acting on impulse. Even more dangerous, the unstrung agent becomes obsessed with her cheating lover, a charismatic Santa Monica cop who draws women like flies to carrion, stalking him, harassing him and finally taking a couple of shots at him.
Although Ana is not your conventional heroine, with her unbridled passions and addiction to ''the pure oxygen of risk, of going over the edge,'' it's hard to peel your eyes from her -- especially when she persists in pursuing Juliana's attacker while standing trial for attempted murder. A risk taker herself, Smith writes in the forceful style of a true literary maverick, someone who has earned the right to break a few rules.
ŠThe New York Times 2003
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