 e-Murderer: A Jenna Scali Mystery is a psychological thriller written by Joan C. Curtis. Jenna is a graduate student who works part-time for Dr. Bingham, a psychiatrist, while she’s pursuing a doctoral degree in psychology. She’s stunned when she finds an anonymous email in her inbox from someone who describes brutally killing a woman with a knife. The sender had used an email service that rendered complete anonymity, so Jenna had no way to find out who had sent it or where they were located. A second email followed soon after the first. Jenna tried to discuss the emails with Dr. Bingham, who agreed to look at them when he returned from an emergency call, but the doctor seemed oddly reluctant to give the matter any serious consideration. Odds were, the police might think that the sender was one of his patients whom he’s determined to protect. When a young woman’s body is found, Jenna begins to fear that the killer is closer than everyone thinks.
Jenna is a strong and resourceful character whose unwilling participation in the killer’s demented game of cat and mouse unleashes her latent sleuthing abilities. Curtis sets her story in Athens, Georgia, and I was impressed by how smoothly she made the locale seem familiar to her readers. Jenna’s friends, Starr, a co-worker, and Quentin, a professor, are marvelous characters whose interactions with Jenna work quite well in building up and maintaining the plot. Jenna’s got too many candidates as suspects, and watching as she tests her hypotheses and keeps the police on their toes is great fun indeed. e-Murderer: A Jenna Scali Mystery is a well-written thriller that’s hard to put down. It’s highly recommended. Jack Magnus |
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