Just Jennifer

What Doesn’t Kill Her by Carla Norton (Minotaur, June 2015)

In a surprising sequel, kidnapping victim Reeve (formerly Reggie) LeClaire is stunned to learn her captor, Daryl Wayne Flint, has escaped from Olshaker Psychiatric Hospital where he has been locked up in the forensic unit.  Reeve thought she had put her four years of captivity behind her and has concentrated on being a typical normal college student for the past seven years, but must now face her worse nightmare: Flint is on the loose and may be coming for her.  After Reeve learns that Flint’s psychiatrist was murdered, the person whom she predicted Flint would seek out, she begins to get feelings in the form of flashbacks that she is certain will lead her to Flint.  Teaming up with retired FBI agent Milo Bender who first worked on Reeve’s case, Reeve revisits the Washington town from where she was kidnapped, knowing deep inside she is the only one who can find Flint and stop him before he kidnaps another young girl.  Suspenseful with many twists and turns, Norton cleverly creates a plot allowing her to spend more time exploring Reeve, portraying Reeve as an even stronger woman than in the first novel that featured her The Edge of Normal as she tried to help another kidnapping victim.  Either book would be a welcome stand alone, but read together provide a portrait of an extremely smart and strong woman and her unwillingness to become a victim, no matter the circumstances and no matter how easy it would be to do nothing, protected by friends and family, even if it meant looking over her shoulder for the rest of her life.