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Summary
Summary
When a murder echoing a fifteen-year-old cold case rocks the Southern town of Savannah, crime reporter Harper McClain risks everything to find the identity of this calculated killer in Christi Daugherty's new novel The Echo Killing .
A city of antebellum architecture, picturesque parks, and cobblestone streets, Savannah moves at a graceful pace. But for Harper McClain, the timeless beauty and culture that distinguishes her home's Southern heritage vanishes during the dark and dangerous nights. She wouldn't have it any other way. Not even finding her mother brutally murdered in their home when she was twelve has made her love Savannah any less.
Her mother's killer was never found, and that unsolved murder left Harper with an obsession that drove her to become one of the best crime reporters in the state of Georgia. She spends her nights with the police, searching for criminals. Her latest investigation takes her to the scene of a homicide where the details are hauntingly familiar: a young girl being led from the scene by a detective, a female victim naked and stabbed multiple times in the kitchen, and no traces of any evidence pointing towards a suspect.
Harper has seen all of this before in her own life. The similarities between the murder of Marie Whitney and her own mother's death lead her to believe they're both victims of the same killer. At last, she has the chance to find the murderer who's eluded justice for fifteen years and make sure another little girl isn't forever haunted by a senseless act of violence--even if it puts Harper in the killer's cross-hairs...
Author Notes
As a newspaper reporter, CHRISTI DAUGHERTY began covering murders at the age of 22. She worked as a journalist for years in cities including Savannah, Baton Rouge, and New Orleans. Her work eventually took her to England, where she wrote the international bestselling Night School series of thrillers for young adults under the name CJ Daugherty. The Echo Killing is her first adult novel.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Newspaper reporter Harper McClain, the narrator of YA author Daugherty's uneven adult debut, peers through a window at a crime scene on a quiet Savannah, Ga., street and spies single mother Marie Whitney lying naked on her kitchen floor, covered in stab wounds. The tableau is identical to what Harper saw 15 years earlier, when she came home from school to find her own mother dead. The police claim that it's unlikely the same person committed both murders, but Harper remains convinced. As the Whitney case starts to cool, Harper becomes increasingly desperate and reckless, breaking rules, burning bridges, and endangering her own life in an attempt to link the two women and catch their killer. What begins as an overwritten, overwrought crime novel with a laughably hard-bitten protagonist relaxes into an engrossing, multifaceted mystery with snappy dialogue, a well-drawn cast of characters, and a sizzling romantic subplot. The book ends with a clever plot twist that paves the way for a sequel. Readers will eagerly await Harper's further adventures. Agent: Madeleine Milburn, Madeleine Milburn Literary (U.K.). (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
Journalist Harper McClain has her hands full trying to make it at a Savannah newspaper that always risks being scooped by the local TV news. She doesn't need the complication of reporting a murder that bears a suspicious resemblance to her mother's killing 15 years before, especially since she's still putting her life together after finding her mother's body. Over the years, the police officer who helped Harper after her mother's death became a champion and a confidant, and he and her boss at the paper are incensed when she continues to investigate the new crime after she has been ordered to drop it. Every mystery reader knows there's no investigator like one who's been ordered off the case, but the clichés end there as Daugherty offers in-depth characterization, realistic dialogue, and a feisty romance subplot in a story that will absorb procedural aficionados until its surprising ending.--Verma, Henrietta Copyright 2018 Booklist
Kirkus Review
Her mother's murder has forever altered a woman's life.Harper McClain discovered her mother's nude and bloody body when she was 12. Because her father was a suspect who left her with her grandmother and eventually moved away and remarried, their relationship remains fragile at best. Harper's anchor during those difficult times was Robert Smith, now the head of Savannah's homicide squad. Although he never kept his promise to find the elusive killer, he's always treated Harper like family, and her good working relationship with the police has enhanced her career as the crack crime reporter for the Daily News. Fearless and driven, she and her photographer, Miles Jackson, never give up on a story even when it puts them in danger. Now she faces a case that could turn her life to ashes and destroy her forbidden relationship with undercover cop Luke Walker. When Harper and Miles arrive on the scene of a murder, she learns that the body of Marie Whitney was first discovered by her 12-year-old daughter. When she sneaks a look at the crime scene, it's exactly like that of her mother. From that moment, she becomes obsessed with the case. Is the culprit the same person who killed her mothersomeone so well-versed in police work that he leaves no clue, no DNA, no trace evidence, even taking away the victim's clothes? Unlike Harper's artist mother, Marie was a highflying fundraiser for a local college who was disliked by her co-workers and had a long string of loversone of whom Harper suspects may be one of the detectives working the case. Although Luke rebukes her for her obsession and denies that a cop could be the killer, Harper risks her job, her lover, and even her life when she won't back down.Daugherty (Night School, 2013, etc.) uses her experience as a crime reporter to create a pulse-pounding combination of mystery and suspense that hints at a welcome follow-up. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
Fifteen years ago 12-year-old Harper -McClain found her mother's bloody body in their kitchen. The murder was never solved but it left an imprint on every aspect of Harper's life, even her choice of career as a crime reporter in Savannah, GA. Now her reporting takes her to another all-too-familiar crime scene of a woman's bloodied body discovered by her traumatized 12-year-old daughter. It brings back memories Harper has tried to forget, and even though the cops insist it's not the same killer, her gut feelings tell her she needs to investigate on her own. With an exact attention to detail and dialog, Daugherty sets her sinister murder stage and introduces her complex players. Harper's nonapologetic tenacious curiosity draws readers into the plot and will leave them hungry for her next big story. VERDICT The author of the best-selling YA "Night School" series marks her adult fiction debut with a spine-tingling, gritty mystery. Fans of Hank Phillippi Ryan and Michael -Connelly will thoroughly enjoy this new voice in crime fiction.-Debbie Haupt, St. Charles City-Cty. Lib. Dist., St Peters, MO © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
