Review by Booklist Review
In this creepy psychological thriller, actress Meribel Mills struggles to fend off a nameless, faceless stalker. After marrying her college sweetheart right after graduation, Meribel is blissful until it all goes bad. Following a painful divorce, she moves to L.A. to pursue her dream of becoming an actress and manages to land a plum role in a sitcom. Unfortunately, her new life, complete with hunky boyfriend, is destroyed when a stalker whom she dubs Marker Man threatens her in a series of increasingly violent letters written in vivid Magic Marker. The police won't take action, so when she's offered a role in a TV series shooting in her hometown of Atlanta, Meribel dumps her friends and boyfriend and flees back home. Not so fast; the stalker has followed her. Readers will be as hard-pressed as Meribel to discover the identity of Marker Man, with Jackson throwing in red herrings aplenty and keeping Meribel mystified and unnerved until the cataclysmic conclusion. Psychologically damaged but charismatic characters, a riveting plot, and taut suspense make this a fine pick for suspense fans.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Meribel Mills, the winning narrator of this solid suspense novel from bestseller Jackson (Mother May I), says she's 37 "according to IMDb," but admits she's 42 "if I went strictly by things like my birth certificate and facts." Meribel's major claim to fame is the sitcom Belinda's World, in which she performed while in her 20s. Still active fan sites and message boards help get her job offers, but they have also attracted a deranged fan. When she realizes that someone has broken into the Los Angeles home she shares with her 12-year-old daughter, she accepts a role in a TV series to be filmed on location in her former hometown of Atlanta. As she says, "I... traded perfect year-round weather for the sticky-hot swamp air of a state I hated, all to make us safe." But nowhere is safe in the age of the internet, and the stalker's sinister messages start arriving at her new doorstep. Whom can she trust? Her ex-husband, her new boyfriend, the helpful new neighbor? Jackson, a former actor herself, wryly describes the actor's life while providing just enough twists and an event-filled if somewhat hasty finale. Those looking for escapist fun will be rewarded. Agent: Caryn Karmatz Rudy, DeFiore & Co. (Apr.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
When a former sitcom star begins to receive explicit and violent letters from a deranged fan, she decides to leave Los Angeles and return to Georgia. Meribel Mills is one of the lucky ones by Hollywood standards: She left her home in Atlanta, hoping to make it big in LA, and was quickly cast as the best friend in a sitcom that made her a household name. Of course, as she enters her 40s, the available roles are fewer and further between. When the stalker, nicknamed "Marker Man" because he always writes with sweetly scented markers, ups his fear campaign, Meribel accepts a new TV role that requires her and her almost-13-year-old daughter, Honor, who has autism, to move back across the country. It's not long before Meribel begins to receive more letters, first forwarded from LA but then with postmarks from towns closer and closer to where she lives. At the same time, she's trying to make peace with her past; her ex-husband still lives nearby, and their breakup was quick and painful. And then there's her handsome neighbor Cooper--so far they've only traded sob stories about their exes, but he seems to enjoy being a shoulder to cry on. And finally, Meribel's most recent ex, Cam, shows up out of the blue. Despite their hot sexual connection, she broke up with him before the move. So she's juggling men and an escalating stalker and Honor's foibles, including the fact that she's adopted a "stray cat" (actually a homeless girl) in tandem with Cooper's stepdaughter. It's complicated, and unfortunately, this many threads lead to not enough depth--in the characters, in the plot, in the suspense. With the exception of Honor, who deserves to be the heroine of her own story, the characters get pushed around by the plot, and the pieces seem to fall into place a bit too easily in the end. Thriller comfort food: It won't disappoint, nor will it shock or delight. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
