Saxton Reads! & Reviews

*****reviewed by CarolK

Minette Walters seldom disappoints me and this read was no exception. Devil’s Feather is psychological suspense at its best.  What would it feel like to be a victim of a terrorist kidnapping, to be kept in a cage for several days, to be blindfolded and wonder if you will be raped, or beheaded? This is just what happens to Connie Burns, Reuter’s reporter. While working on a story in Sierra Leone about five women brutally murdered, she suspects a British mercenary. She has met this man before under different names and is certain he is using the backdrop of war as a cover for his sadistic murders. In a confrontation with him, he warns her not to cross him. Connie could not know to what lengths this man would go to make good on his threat.
 
What I really loved about this book was how well Walter’s portrays monsters that prey, their victims, and explores the role of what it takes to be a survivor. I learned a thing or two, also. I learned that the mastiffs in the Hounds of the Baskervilles were actually a mastiff/bloodhound cross and that they are scarier than the mastiffs belonging to a main character in Devil's Feather. Though Jess’s dogs are massive in size and look ferocious, they are less to be feared and less ferocious than expected.
 
I was intrigued by the definition of Devil's Feather coming from the Turkish and translating as "a woman who stirs a man's interest without realizing it; the unwitting cause of sexual arousal. This passage, at the beginning of the book drew me right in. Having read many of Walter's novels, I was right at home with her style of story told with use of emails, letters, newspaper stories and the like. She does this so well.

Characters you'll care about, a fast paced story; I couldn't put it down!