Reviewed By: Catherine Thompson - RAM
![[5 stars]](../images/spots/6_paw_50.gif)
The Devil's Feather
Amazon US HC Amazon UK PB Amazon UK HC Amazon Canada HC
Minette Walters
Class/Genre: Mystery
Macmillan, $34.95, 357 pages
Reuters war correspondent Connie Burns knows the brutalities people inflict on their fellows, but she was unprepared for the slashing murders of 5 women in Sierra Leone, while she was there in 2002 to cover the civil war. She remained unconvinced that the 3 boy-soldiers arrested for the crime are actually guilty, for she had her own suspect: a man calling himself John Harwood, whom she was certain she’d met before, while she covered the Congo civil war. Now she’s encountered him again, in Iraq, 2 years after their last meeting, only now he’s calling himself Keith O’Connell. This time, she’s determined to find out if he’s up to his old tricks. But before she can dig deeply enough, she’s kidnapped and held for 3 days before being released.
Humiliated and terrified, Connie heads back to England, to the Dorset countryside. There, she befriends Jess Derbyshire, a loner whose reticence might also hide deep secrets. Finding many parallels between them, Connie digs up the determination to go after the man she’s certain is a serial killer one more time, knowing that he’ll come after her again.
Minette Walters deserves every accolade heaped upon her. With The Devil’s Feather, she draws a compelling and realistic portrait of post-traumatic stress disorder, of a woman fighting to find the courage she once had. Walters’s books aren’t so much about the killers as their victims, the ones left behind. It is in these deep characterizations that this author excels.
The Devil’s Feather rolls along at a cracking pace, drawing the reader in from the first page and holding on until the very end. Somehow, the rather disparate elements—news stories, emails, and narrative—combine for a cohesive whole.
Catherine Thompson - RAM
Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Catherine Thompson - RAM
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