Seattle police psychologist Daphne Mathews has her hands full with a pregnant, addicted, runaway teenager, a murder victim's brother whose strange behavior unnerves her, and a deputy sheriff she once treated who's now stalking her. She's frightened enough to move in with Detective John LaMoia, a development that doesn't exactly thrill Lou Boldt, their boss and Daphne's ex-lover. But Lou's too busy with his own cases to brood over John and Daphne: the recent disappearances of two local women, and the death of Billy Chen, the nephew of Mama Lu, an old friend and a powerful figure in Seattle's Chinese community, which appeared to be an accident but turns out to have been murder. The only thing the disappearances and murder have in common is location; all three victims were last seen in a part of downtown built over the Underground, a dark and dangerous warren of buildings abandoned after the fire that leveled Seattle more than a hundred years ago. While Seattle's Underground has been the setting for several mysteries by other authors (Earl Emerson, J.A. Jance), Pearson makes the most of its creepy-crawly atmosphere in a gripping thriller whose solid plotting pulls all of Daphne's, LaMoia's, and Boldt's cases together. It also wisely reconfigures the personal relationships among the three central characters, which bodes well for their future adventures in this long-running series (Middle of Nowhere, The Pied Piper). --Jane Adams


From Publishers Weekly
Seattle police detective Lou Boldt, Pearson's engaging cop hero, retired from the force a few years back when personal problems started stacking up, then returned when those same problems faded. These days, he's in more of a paper-shuffling role, letting his younger charges mix it up on the street. Taking center stage here, in the eighth Boldt entry (after Parallel Lies), are two longtime prominent series sidekicks, forensic pathologist Daphne Matthews and the skirt-chasing stud cop, John LaMoia. Together, they investigate the perplexing murder of a woman who was pushed off a bridge. The case turns creepy when the evidence against the prime suspect falls apart and the victim's brother, Ferrell Walker, simultaneously courts and lashes out at Matthews. Meanwhile, Boldt pursues his own case, following the trail of two missing women who appear to have been stalked before disappearing. As with many of Pearson's plots, the two story lines eventually mesh into a wild, drawn-out finale. The setting this time couldn't be better. It's Seattle's Underground, a subterranean ghost town of abandoned shops and homes now underneath the newer, more flood-resistant city built on top a century ago. It is within this spooky, cavernous landscape that Pearson's forte the manhunt bursts through with all its usual bone-tingling drama and suspense. And what of the somewhat marginalized Boldt? Longtime fans may feel a touch of sadness, yet Pearson ably layers Matthews's personality with new depths to make an appealingly quirky character. As for LaMoia, even he shows that he's more than just a pretty face with an insatiable sex drive. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
In Pearson's latest thriller (after Parallel Lies), deception is raised to the level of an art. Lou Boldt is back, but Daphne Matthews and John LaMoia take the spotlight in this Seattle-based suspense novel. A young woman is thrown off the Aurora Bridge, two women have vanished in the tourist area of the Seattle Underground, and a worker drowns under mysterious circumstances. These three cases are just the beginning, as Daphne discovers that she is being stalked. She starts to believe that same man has committed all three crimes and she is the next target. Her strong will keeps her involved in the case, even as her stable life starts to crumble around her. Pearson keeps the sense of danger and paranoia intense as the various characters' emotions spill from each page. The atmospheric descriptions of Seattle are dead-on, causing this Seattle-based reviewer to feel uneasy when moving around town. This is hands-down one of the best thrillers of the year. - Jeff Ayers, Seattle P.L. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From AudioFile
Beginning with Mary Ann Walker's jump off a Seattle Bridge, then turning to the investigation of two missing women, a murdered road crew worker, and a peeping tom, this police procedural tells a complex tale. As the police follow leads, the killers leave a multitude of false clues in an attempt to confuse the detectives. Chilling murders and creepy midnight stalkings, described in Pearson's own relentless gravelly voice, add to the story. Pearson reads in a slow, even voice that dips to inaudibility at the end of sentences. Nevertheless, his captivating story never ceases to disturb. M.B.K. © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


From Booklist
*Starred Review* Pearson's last novel, Parallel Lies [BKL My 1 01], a stand-alone thriller about railroad terrorism, seemed a bit predictable, at least for a writer who is usually a master of unpredictability, but this time he's back at the top of his game. The eighth installment in the Lou Boldt-Daphne Matthews series finds the Seattle police lieutenant and his forensic psychologist colleague investigating two cases that ultimately become one. Boldt is tracking a serial killer, and Matthews is investigating the death of a woman who was thrown from Seattle's Aurora Bridge. Circling around both cases is John LaMoia, a longtime member of Boldt's team now struggling with both a lingering addiction to pain medication and the attraction he suddenly feels to Matthews, who was once involved with Boldt. Pearson has always excelled at interweaving human drama with the constantly building suspense of a murder investigation, and he does so again here. As both cases come to focus on the same suspect, a stalker who haunts Seattle's Underground, Boldt, Matthews, and LaMoia are thrown together in a dramatic finale made all the more exciting by the roiling emotions the three characters feel for one another. Pearson makes particularly good use of his Seattle setting this time; the legendary Underground (created when the city was rebuilt after its great fire of 1889) has often appeared in mysteries, but Pearson's detail-rich treatment goes well beyond the typical cliches of dark passages and abandoned storefronts. On every level, this series remains one of the mystery genre's great pleasures. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"Friendship comes at a cost. For beautiful Mary-Ann Walker, who struggled with the challenges of a difficult family history, that cost proves to be her life. With Mary-Ann's past as its only guideline, the Seattle homicide unit must delve into the relationships between a misguided young woman and her family, friends, and lover. Let the psychological duels begin." "Seattle Police forensic psychologist Daphne Matthews, who volunteers as a teenage runaway counselor, is haunted by the loss of a suicide, a "jumper," a year earlier. When a woman's body is found beneath the Aurora Bridge, Matthews is one of the first at the scene - and begins a puzzling investigation that becomes entangled with her own past, that of the victim, and even that of Seattle itself." "Mary-Ann's boyfriend has a record of physical abuse, and an attitude that Matthews finds difficult to crack. When the victim's grieving brother surfaces, throwing blame onto the boyfriend and craving revenge, Matthews gains an unstable ally she does not want." Then the stalking begins: the eerie phone calls, the noises outside the house, the shadows that move in the night. Someone has his eye on Matthews - but to stop her, to kill her, or to help her solve the crime?

SYNOPSIS

Ridley Pearson, author of the #1 NYT Bestseller THE DIARY OF ELLEN RIMBAUER delivers a nail-biting crime novel of betrayal and deception.

FROM THE CRITICS

Entertainment Weekly

Better than a guilty pleasure.

New York Times Book Review

Beautifully orchestrated.

Bookstreet USA

Chilling and believable.

Book Magazine - Michael Phillips

Seattle detectives Lou Boldt, John LaMoia and Daphne Matthews are working on a series of potentially related cases, including a suspicious drowning and the disappearance of two women who are presumed dead. Catching the crafty would-be killer becomes harder when a suspect starts stalking Detective Matthews and leads the trio on a chase through Seattle's Underground. It's in this unconventional and creepy setting that Pearson's book really excels.

Publishers Weekly