Snapped-Laura Griffin

Snapped
Laura Griffin
Pocket, Aug 30 2011, $7.99
ISBN: 9781451617368

Delphi Center crime lab employee Sophie Barrett is at the university enrolling in classes when shots ring out. Somebody at the top of the library is shooting; Sophie takes cover next to a dying pregnant woman and her toddler. Four people die including the shooter and over a hundred injured. Homicide detective Jonah Macon came close to catching the killer but the culprit committed suicide.

Jonah knows Sophie having saved her life from a psychopath. When they finally ID the killer it is James Himmel. The car he drove was a green VW, but the vehicle that took Sophie’s space when she went to the registrar was the car that that belonged to Himmel. Due to the times involved she believes Himmel could not have been the culprit as he could not have crossed the campus to fire the shots. Sophie tries to tell Jonah and other cops, but nobody listens to her except someone who tries to kill her. The attempts on her life has Jonah reconsidering her assertion as they team up seeking a brilliant killer while he struggles to keep the independent woman he is attracted to safe.

The fourth Delphi Center Tracers tale (see Unforgivable, Unspeakable and Untraceable) is an exhilarating police procedural with a cute secondary romantic subplot that enhances the whodunit as she becomes willing bait while he wants her safe but she blatantly and brazenly ignores his rules. The mystery is cleverly devised so that the cops, her peers at work and the media believe the mass murderer killed himself; only Sophie has a contrary opinion. Fast-paced, fans of Jayne Ann Krentz will enjoy Laura Griffin’s entertaining romantic suspense.

Harriet Klausner