Review of Conduit: by Angie Martin
Conduit by Angie Martin
Angie Martin lives in Overland Park, Kansas with her husband, two cats, and beloved dog. She grew up in Wichita, Kansas and has lived all over the United States. Her entire life has revolved around imaginary worlds contained within the covers of a book. Her aunt introduced her to Stephen King and a little book called Christine in eighth grade, and she says her life was never the same.
Her debut suspense novel, “False Security” (romantic suspense) was re-released in October 2013. “Conduit” was released March 5, 2014. She also has a poetry collection that was released in April 2014. “The Boys Club” (romantic suspense).
In Conduit, a young woman who is strongly psychic is used to help a serial killer victimize and then kill innocent women, whom he kidnaps and holds at his farmhouse in rural Kansas.
As the story evolves, Emily, the psychic, meets a young man named Jake, who is also psychic. Together, they form a temporary wall against the killer, but he is very strong and begins tearing the wall down bit by bit, causing Emily untold pain.
In this psychological YA thriller, Emily must fight demons in her own past as well as the evil presence in her mind to try and bring the killer to justice.
The crime scene episodes provide a lot of satisfying detail, so even the most experienced true crime enthusiast will be enthralled. This killer apparently knows all the tricks necessary to avoid detection, from wearing gloves at all times, to cleaning under the victims’ fingernails and even shampooing their hair before disposing of each body in obvious places so the police can easily find the women he tortures and kills. He also carves a letter into each woman’s body—usually before killing them—in order to taunt the authorities who are trying to track him down and to prevent more atrocities.
Martin’s vivid characterizations are a strong point in this book, as is the sexual tension between Jake and Emily. He is always there for her as she tries to break the mental bond the killer has with her, and she is a likeable, credible strong lead protagonist, but vulnerable enough to be believable.
The author’s writing is clear and strong as well, with an occasionally lyric turn-of-phrase: “Lionel stopped his restless movements and made his way to the table like a robot obeying a new command from his master.” And another: “A glaze formed at the top of the (blood) puddles, like gravy sitting too long in the gravy boat at Thanksgiving dinner.” And one more: “Emily looked at (Jake), taking a moment to memorize the contours of his face, examine his soul through his eyes, and he did the same with her.”
I really enjoyed Conduit. It’s the perfect YA book, with plenty of sensuality scattered throughout for the female audience, yet enough hard police procedure to make it interesting to a man. (That sounds sexist, I know — not my intent, just an observation.) And the paranormal aspect of the lead characters added a dimension that helped move the narrative along nicely.
The action scenes down toward the end of the book will leave you breathless to see how it will all turn out. The ending is unpredictable, yet satisfying.
I give this book a solid five stars, and recommend it to anyone wanting a nice long read with a paranormal twist.
