Review by Booklist Review
Just before he's tortured and murdered, high-school teacher Matthew Linklater emails Rachel Marin, freelance forensic consultant to the Ashby Police Department in Illinois, asking her help in a matter concerning some students. When his charred body is found in his burned-out house, a blatant case of arson, it sends a message that scares anyone who might offer information. While Rachel joins Detectives John Serrano and Leslie Tally in investigating the crime, she's increasingly concerned about her teenage son, Eric, who's becoming more withdrawn since his father's murder years earlier. Her concern heightens when Eric is targeted by Bennett Brice, founder of the seemingly legal Ponzi scheme YourLife, who recruits troubled boys. Then Evie Boggs, Rachel's teacher and friend from an earlier life, appears wanting information about the Linklater case and offering vague threats. Danger is heightened by brothers Raymond and Randall Spivak, loan sharks turned murderers who use the love of mothers for their sons as leverage in their crimes. This second in the Rachel Marin series maintains the promise of the first (Hide Away, 2020), with full-bodied characters in a compelling plot and graphic elements leavened by doses of humanity. Not for those who prefer less-violent stories, but a sure bet for other crime-fiction readers.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
At the start of Pinter's outstanding sequel to 2020's Hide Away, high school teacher Matthew Linklater sends an email to single mother Rachel Martin, a forensic consultant to the Ashby, Ill., PD, saying he has information "regarding a few of our students, and their dealings with people who, to put it mildly, do not have their best interests at heart." A short time later, someone hits Linklater with a wrench, ties him to his bed, lets a rat eat into his body, and sets his house on fire. (The fire kills him.) When Rachel joins the police investigation into the teacher's murder, she discovers that some vicious people have been exploiting at-risk boys, including her emotionally withdrawn 14-year-old son, Eric. Rachel first contends with the man behind an outwardly benign boys' organization, and then those behind him, two psychopathic brothers who are running a money-laundering ring. Rachel's no female Jack Reacher, but she's tough physically and morally--even while struggling with qualms about her own past actions and terrified of what could happen to Eric and her daughter, Megan. Readers will cheer her every step of the way. This powerful family-values thriller is a convincing, moving performance. Agent: Amy Tannenbam, Jane Rotrosen Agency. (Jan.)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Pinter's second "Rachel Marin" thriller (builds on the success of Hide Away, reinforcing the grit and tenacity of his determined single-mom protagonist. Featuring several returning characters, this title slowly uncovers more details about Rachel's past but still leaves plenty to guess at. When her teenage son's teacher at Ashby High is tortured to death and his home torched, Rachel and her family are drawn into a series of events gone wrong. Bennett Brice, a charismatic businessman, quickly becomes a murder suspect when Rachel's son, Eric, is recruited to join YourLife in a mysterious gathering hosted by Brice at a baseball field after midnight. As founder of YourLife, allegedly created to help young people develop business skills and improve their self-image, Brice is arrogant, pompous, and seemingly untouchable. However, after Det. John Serrano, Rachel's love interest, witnesses the late-night initiation, he and Rachel become convinced that YourLife is a glamorized Ponzi scheme somehow tied to the murder. Pinter subtly weaves into his page-turner themes about family bonds, challenges of same-sex parenting, relationships in single-parent families, even bonds between coworkers. VERDICT Pinter's strong depictions of diverse types of love, respect, and loyalty resonate loudly in this nail-biter novel.--Jeffrey W. Hunter, Royal Oak, MI
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A suburban mom--turned--crime fighter becomes involved in a second case that threatens her family. After her husband was murdered, Rachel Marin transformed herself to shield her children from harm in Hide Away (2020). She changed her name, moved her family to another state, took self-defense classes, and eventually became more than friends with police officer John Serrano, whom she assisted in solving a murder in her new town. When schoolteacher Matthew Linklater is brutally slain just after sending Rachel an email asking to talk to her about an unspecified threat to his students, she's sucked into the investigation. Her son, Eric, is already secretive, morose, and friendless. When he starts refusing to tell her where he's going, she follows him and learns that someone is recruiting high school students for shady business deals that earn them plenty of cash. The sudden arrival of Evie Boggs, Rachel's self-defense teacher, who knows her past and knows that her husband's killer is still out there, is unnerving, especially when Evie strongly suggests that Rachel drop her investigation. Although the shady businessman seems fairly harmless, the two brothers he's working with are stone-cold killers who will go to any lengths to attain their nefarious goals. Furious and terrified, Rachel risks her life to protect her children and other innocents caught in a perilous situation. Beneath the brutality in this suspenseful thriller lie bone-deep fear and a genuine concern for justice. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
