Just Jennifer

The Edge of Normal by Carla Norton (Minotaur, September 2013)

Six years after she was rescued from three years of captivity, twenty-two year old Reeve LeClaire is still trying to reclaim her life.  She still has weekly therapy sessions with Dr. Ezra Lerner, has a job at a Japanese restaurant and feels reasonably confident she can handle the impending Thanksgiving dinner with her family.  Dr. Lerner is called away from San Francisco to help a recently rescued young girl who had been held captive and tortured.  Before Tilly’s family will agree to hire Dr. Lerner, they want to speak with Reeve first.  Reeve is understandably hesitant but realizing her family still sees her as a victim, she heads to Jefferson County where she learns Tilly is one of three young girls to have been recently kidnapped, but Tilly’s captor convincingly claims to have no knowledge of the other two girls.  Tilly and Reeve form a bond over their shared experience and Tilly reveals there was a second man who did most of the torturing, but she is afraid to reveal this to the police, even though she is unable to identify him.  Tilly’s captor is killed while in custody sending warning signs through the investigative team and to Reeve who starts looking into some things she thinks the team may have overlooked; someone is watching and waiting, though, and time may just be running out for two little girls and even for Reeve.

Tightly plotted this is a complex psychological thriller that explores victims, survivors, their families and the minds of the captors.  Reeve’s decision to help Dr. Lerner is an impulsive one for her, but she quickly acclimates when she has someone else to focus on besides herself.  Smartly plotted and fast-paced, The Edge of Normal has characters to root for along with some truly evil villains.