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Summary
Summary
Channel 3's news director sends Riley on a dog rescue story sure to win over Minneapolis-St. Paul's viewers. But when the Twin City's latest murder victim is someone from Riley's past, she can't stay away. Kate Warner was her college roommate's sister, and the killer's signature - a chalk outline of a winged angel - links him to a string of homicides across the Midwest. Unearthing his agenda leads Riley to the legendary Black Angel statue in an Iowa cemetery - and may lead to a twisted trap designed just for her by the angel killer himself.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In Kramer's so-so fourth novel featuring spunky Minneapolis TV reporter Riley Spartz (after Silencing Sam), Riley helps cover the grisly murder of Kate Warner, the younger sister of a college roommate of Riley's. In a world where stations are forced to degrade long-term news projects into "instant" investigations, and smoothly chitchatting hottie (younger!) anchors usurp experienced (older!) newshounds like Riley, Riley struggles with fallout from a human-interest dog-abuse feature, Kate's secret career as a successful author of erotica, and Channel 3's obsession with Nielsen ratings. In addition, Riley juggles weekend trysts with her long-distance cop beau, Nick Garrett, and pursues a run-of-the-mill psychopath who's targeting her. Kramer, a veteran TV news producer, offers pungent insights into today's TV news and its self-serving minions who'll conveniently bend the truth to keep their jobs, but her tired old plot devices, Styrofoam characters, and predictable romantic angst ("Him for justice; me for news") dwindle into a melange of unsatisfying news bytes. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
Minneapolis television reporter Riley Spartz is on the story when her former college roommate's sister, Kate Warner, is found murdered in what is later determined to be one of several ritualistic serial killings in which the victims are outlined in chalk. Riley connects the shape of the chalk outline with the Black Angel statue found in a cemetery in Iowa City and almost loses her life when the killer targets her after hearing her TV reports. Kramer tells the tale from both Riley's and the killer's points of view, and this strategy, combined with short chapters and some clever plot twists, keeps the pages turning. Along with the main mystery, Kramer gives readers a strong sense of a reporter's working routine, drawing in details of other news stories and of Riley's personal life to add texture to the novel.--O'Brien, Su. Copyright 2010 Booklist
Kirkus Review
Having survived her role as murder suspect (Silencing Sam,2010, etc.), Minneapolis TV news reporter Riley Spartz auditions for the role of prospective victim.The faceless killer prowling the Midwest had been concentrating on waitresses until he met Kate Warner, a girl next door with a secret life as a pseudonymous author of erotica. Bashing Kate to death with his favorite weapon, a broken baseball bat, would seem to guarantee wall-to-wall coverage, but not on Channel 3, where news director Noreen Banks is more interested in the heartrending tale of Buddy, a dog who died after being left in an overheated car by Keith Avise, his nasty owner. Or part-owner, since Keith's ex Barbara soon turns up with the papers establishing her joint custody of Buddy, fanning the flames of yesterday's news still further. Meanwhile, Kate's killer, now identified as legal assistant Karl Dolezal, has communed with one of his many dead homicidal relatives ("his family tree became his destiny") and received authorization to target Riley, who mistakes the stalker for her guardian angel when he rescues her from an egg-hurling Keith Avise. There's no real hope that Dolezal's crazy compulsion will doom Riley, but it's nice to see a final scene in which several of her obnoxious colleagues at Channel 3 are mowed down, presumably to clear the way for more congenial replacements.The mad killer is constantly, and realistically, upstaged by a graver threat from Noreen: "My job is on the line. Which means your job is on the line."]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
When Minneapolis TV reporter Riley Spartz (Silencing Sam) covers a local murder, she has no idea how close to home the story will strike. Discovering that she knows the victim, Riley unwittingly becomes the next prey for a serial killer targeting women across the Midwest. She also becomes immersed in an animal-neglect story that threatens her professionalism and more. When Riley's murder investigation reveals connections to the legendary Black Angel monument in an Iowa cemetery, will it help identify the killer or lead to her own demise? Will the animal-neglect story come back to haunt her? Riley walks a thin line between good reporting and jeopardizing her own life. VERDICT Best-selling author Kramer surpasses her previous three Riley Spartz titles with this feverishly suspenseful, nail-biting thriller with a gutsy heroine. [See Prepub Alert, 12/20/10.]-Mary Todd Chesnut, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Excerpts
Excerpts
PROLOGUE The night began with a teenage dare. She followed reluctantly as he led her by the hand to the shadow of the Black Angel. A full moon gave them less privacy than she would have liked. Her back now against the horizontal concrete slab, she waited for him to lay his body across hers. Her lips prayed for the encounter to be quick because out of the corner of her eye a raven watched them intently from atop a gravestone. Unlike most cemetery angels, whose heads and wings lift upward toward heaven, this statue's face and wings bent downward over the grave it guarded--as if pointing straight to hell. And while angel sculptures are traditionally a golden bronze or white marble, this one's hue was black. Besides the figure's sinister posture and color, its stony eyes seemed to stare into hers as if issuing a personal condemnation. Her feeling of doom was so strong, the girl struggled to move away. But he held her down, pushed her dress up to her waist, and there, at the hem of the Black Angel, they sinned. The writer paused over the keyboard and reread the scene. Then with a smile, added sensory and sensual details about places the boy was hard and the girl was soft, and how their throaty moans were the only sound of life amid the dark tombstones. A final tweak when the female character closed her eyes tight to shut out the angel's glare completed the carnal passage. © 2011 Julie Kramer Excerpted from Killing Kate by Julie Kramer All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
