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Hachette Livre, Oct 2007
Reviewed by Sunnie Gill
Sarah Reilly is a Special Agent with the FBI. She is following in the
footsteps of her semi-retired father, who made his name tracking down a
notorious serial killer.
Sarah and her partner and former boyfriend, Drew, are assigned a case out
of town. It bears all the hallmarks of a serial killer who murders couples
in a specific locale near a lake. For Sarah, a profiler, there is
something not quite right about these killings. She can’t put her finger
on it, but she feels this is the work of a copycat.
In a seeming unrelated crime, a man is found knifed to death in a way that
suggests it was planned. The only witness is a thirteen year old homeless
boy, whom Sarah befriends. The boy says there was more than one killer and
they seemed highly organised. He is taken into protective custody but to
no avail. Someone breaks into the safe house, disables the guards and
kills the boy in his sleep. Their only witness is now dead.
Consumed with guilt at having put the boy in harm’s way, Sarah focuses her
attention on finding who killed him. As she investigates Sarah finds
herself in increasing danger.
MAELSTROM is a no-apologies thriller. I have to be honest and say
thrillers aren’t usually my choice of reading. They work better for me on
the big screen than between the pages of a book, but I found myself
enjoying MAELSTROM much more than I expected. There is plenty of action
without it being dragged out too much and there’s enough plot to keep
non-action people like me reading.
Dedicated thriller-readers will enjoy every action-packed page of
MAELSTROM. It is a promising debut novel from Michael MacConnell.
MAELSTROM is a 2008 Ned Kelly nominee for Best First Novel.
Michael MacConnell is Australian and lives on the Central Coast of New
South Wales. He has a degree in International Relations, History and
Ancient History and currently works in New South Wales law enforcement.
His official website is
http://www.michaelmacconnell.com/ .
June 2008
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