Book Review: Bleeding Heart

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Bleeding Heart     Amazon US HC Amazon Canada HC
Martha Powers
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Adult Content
Simon & Schuster, Aug 2000, $23.00, 318 pp.

He carries an Everest load of guilt deep inside his gut. Grant Holbrook was too bored to watch his two and half-year-old nephew Tyler while his sister Beverly McKenzie went to the mall. Beverly took her son with her, but in the blink of an eye, the child was gone. Two and a half years later, Tyler remains missing.

At the Renaissance Fair in Delbrook, Wisconsin, Maggie Collier and her son Jake take plenty of pictures. Jake's grampa George had the film developed. He recognizes Tyler in the pictures and calls Grant, who immediately travels to Delbrook. However, before Grant arrives, someone kills George and steals the photos. Grant and Maggie exchange stories and begin to work close together to uncover the identity of a killer-kidnapper before someone else is hurt.

Martha Powers tells a grand story that brings fresh life through her deep characters to the lurking monster in human clothing thriller. BLEEDING HEART is a realistic, grim tale that could happen to any small child in any state when an organized, intelligent, but amoral warrior seeks its prey. Once started, there is no helper to stop every mother's worse nightmare from coming true as Martha Power's plot powerfully paints.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner