Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Do You Remember Me Now?-Karen Hanson Stuyk

Do You Remember Me Now?
Karen Hanson Stuyk
Five Star, Jun 8 2011, $25.95
ISBN: 9781594149580

“The Six” were the bullies at high school in Houston fifteen years ago. Nobody crossed them as the retaliation was always extreme.

In the present in Chicago, married Todd, one of the Six, picks up a woman at a bar. The next day he is found dead in his hotel room.

At the same time, divorced Chicago plastic surgeon Dr. Kate Dalton attended the same school where the sextet treated her nastily as “Plain Jane”. In fact Todd date raped her, left her pregnant, but her baby died at birth and she had to have her uterus removed. She moved past them, lost weight, had her face fixed, and kept her married name. Kate is back in Houston to tend to her critically ill mother suffering from Leukemia. At the time her former school is hosting the fifteenth anniversary gala that she does not plan to attend. However, someone else has a different idea for fun; which focuses on killing the Six and since she was a victim who was in Chicago when number one died, police detective Sam Wolfe suspects Kate, but is also attracted to her.

Karen Hanson Stuyk makes a strong case that teen bullying not dealt with at the time lingers with those who were the victims. The story line is fast-paced from the moment Todd meets his fate and never slows down as other members of the Six are killed too. With the exception of the former quarterback, the rest of the Six come across as stereotypes of high school icons who never changed as adults and the killer seems obvious relatively early. Still this is an entertaining romantic police procedural that cautions readers to be aware of and deal with bullying.

Harriet Klausner

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