Winter Break

December 17, 2012
In Jones’s uneven third Harper Jennings mystery (after 2012’s Behind the Walls), four-months pregnant Harper, an Iraq war veteran and now a Cornell graduate student, looks out her window one winter night and spots a naked man running out of the snowy woods into the light of her driveway’s motion sensors. Another figure follows, tackles the first, then carries him back into the woods. When Harper reports what she saw to the police, her flighty, irritating mother, who’s staying with her while husband Hank is away, suggests Harper’s PTSD or hormones caused her to hallucinate. The only people taking her seriously are students Evan Lourd and Sty, who live at the fraternity next door. As Evan and Sty ingratiate themselves with her household, Baby Mozart and Harper’s thesis on pre-Columbian symbolism become secondary to a search for the truth—and her survival. A leisurely setup abruptly jolts into unlikely revelations and violent confrontations. Agent: Rebecca Strauss, McIntosh & Otis.

January 1, 2013
Pregnant Iraq War vet Harper Jennings (Behind the Walls, 2012, etc.) faces her most perilous adventure: an extended Christmas visit from her mother. Hank Jennings, more or less recovered from his fall from the family roof (Summer Session, 2011), is off on a geological survey in South Texas. Concerned about his wife back in Ithaca, he's arranged for her mother, Vivian, and her current boyfriend, Lou, to stay with her. It's not a happy choice. Vivian's alcoholism, narcissism and persistent attraction to losers have kept her at a distance from Harper, who bickers with her over everything, and Lou, who actually seems to be more on the ball than most of his predecessors, turns out to be hiding a dangerous secret. The biggest problem this Christmas, however, is the next-door neighbors. The fraternity house, which is supposed to be vacant for the holidays, is actually tenanted by Evan Lourd and his buddy Sty, who've stayed over without permission so that they can pick up other young men and murder them, taking their time over each victim in order to study his reactions and perfect their technique. As in the case of Leopold and Loeb, things don't go as smoothly for Evan and Sty as they expect, and the complications increasingly involve Harper as witness, as potential victim and as avenger. Jones works conscientiously to cross-pollinate the distant but lethal threats posed by Lou's secret with the clear and present danger represented by the boys next door If you can swallow the coincidences behind the setup and the physically indomitable heroine, this nonstop tale pays off in spades.

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February 1, 2013

In this third outing (after Behind the Walls), Harper Jennings finds that a visit from her mother and the woman's new boyfriend may be too much. Is it just pregnancy hormones making Harper think her mother's boyfriend is hiding something or is she on to something? And what about that body in the woods?

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2012
Midway through her first pregnancy, Harper Jennings is told to rest and avoid stress. It's a tough order to follow when stress-makers are so close at hand, notably her self-centered, hard-drinking mother, Viv, who is visiting for a month while Harper's brain-injured husband, Hank, is away on a geologic survey. (It doesn't help that Viv has brought along a boyfriend with a shady past.) While struggling with Viv's manipulating ways, Harper also is bothered by her nighttime sighting of a naked young man appealing for help while being pursued through her yard next to a fraternity house that is presumably vacant for winter break. An injured Iraq vet still suffering flashbacks, Harper is frustrated by being unable to find the young man when she gives chase and, later, by not being taken seriously by police. Jones smoothly advances the personal stories of her principal characters in this third entry in the series (after Behind the Walls, 2012). A fast-moving, satisfying suspense novel with some nice twists.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)