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The Master Detective
She slept with an angelic look on her face, but Margaret Webster knew her precocious niece, Caitlin, was no angel. Especially when she was hell-bent on proving her stepfather was plotting a ghoulish murder.
But what Margaret thought was a harmless child's imagination soon turned into a deadly nightmare. A nightmare that had started with a fortuneteller's predictions about the child and a black-haired man.
Then Jake McCall arrived, and took Margaret's breath away. Suddenly, one prediction had come true. With his dark hair and equally dark identity, Jake was a living, chilling reminder that anything was possible. Even the fact that maybe Margaret's niece was right. Dead right.
But what Margaret thought was a harmless child's imagination soon turned into a deadly nightmare. A nightmare that had started with a fortuneteller's predictions about the child and a black-haired man.
Then Jake McCall arrived, and took Margaret's breath away. Suddenly, one prediction had come true. With his dark hair and equally dark identity, Jake was a living, chilling reminder that anything was possible. Even the fact that maybe Margaret's niece was right. Dead right.
256 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1992
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 6, 2015
3 Stars ~ Margaret was happy to take care of her 7 year old niece for a few weeks while her sister, Sandy, recovered from a lingering illness. The doctor suggested that Sandy's new husband take her to a warmer climate to help shake off the bug. Caitlin, though she loves her Aunt Margaret, doesn't understand why she can't go to Florida too. Sandy and Robert were renting the Vermont house furnished while the landlady, Mrs. Knox, is away on an extended trip to Europe. Caitlin is obsessed by the mysterious Mrs. Knox after hearing all sorts of gossip about how she killed her husband for his money, and had once been the first Mrs. Knox's nurse. With her niece's antics about to drive her crazy, Margaret decides to take them both into town, and luck would have it, there's a fair going on. Madame Zorina's fortune telling booth attracts both of them. From the moment they enter her tent, Madame Zorina seems agitated, and she foresees for Margaret a man who will forever change her life, and a threat to someone she loves, great danger. For Caitlin, Madame Zorina tells the child she will be the catalyst and the saviour.
Jake's a civil engineer in Vermont assessing his next project and decided to find his former brother-in-law. He hadn't seen Robert since before his sister's death as Jake had been in Australia. From a lead by the local real estate office, Jake comes to Mrs. Knox's house and is pleasantly surprised when Margaret opens the door. She hadn't known Robert had been married before but she likes the look of Jake and invites him in. They take an instant liking towards each other, and Margaret muses that at least one of Madame Zorina's predictions has come true. And in the next days, it seems the more sinister premonitions are at play, when someone breaks into the house, a dead body is found in the quarry behind the barn, and Jake and Margaret's car is rammed off the road. Caitlin's investigations into Mrs. Knox seem to shed some light on what is happening, and Margaret and Jake suddenly wonder at the coincidence of his sister's illness and sudden death and now, Sandy's lingering bug.
Ms. McCann's debut is an entertaining whodunit with just the right balance of intrigue and romance. Caitlin is a superstar character, very well written and thoroughly believable as the precocious "master detective". Margaret and Jake make for a great couple. Though Jake is a hunky 6'3", he isn't portrayed as a super alpha, he's more supportive than take charge. Margaret admits she's out of her depth, both with Caitlin's antics and with the evil lurking about. There are some editing booboo's that pulled me out of the story, but for the most part I was eagerly turning the pages to see what would happen next.
Jake's a civil engineer in Vermont assessing his next project and decided to find his former brother-in-law. He hadn't seen Robert since before his sister's death as Jake had been in Australia. From a lead by the local real estate office, Jake comes to Mrs. Knox's house and is pleasantly surprised when Margaret opens the door. She hadn't known Robert had been married before but she likes the look of Jake and invites him in. They take an instant liking towards each other, and Margaret muses that at least one of Madame Zorina's predictions has come true. And in the next days, it seems the more sinister premonitions are at play, when someone breaks into the house, a dead body is found in the quarry behind the barn, and Jake and Margaret's car is rammed off the road. Caitlin's investigations into Mrs. Knox seem to shed some light on what is happening, and Margaret and Jake suddenly wonder at the coincidence of his sister's illness and sudden death and now, Sandy's lingering bug.
Ms. McCann's debut is an entertaining whodunit with just the right balance of intrigue and romance. Caitlin is a superstar character, very well written and thoroughly believable as the precocious "master detective". Margaret and Jake make for a great couple. Though Jake is a hunky 6'3", he isn't portrayed as a super alpha, he's more supportive than take charge. Margaret admits she's out of her depth, both with Caitlin's antics and with the evil lurking about. There are some editing booboo's that pulled me out of the story, but for the most part I was eagerly turning the pages to see what would happen next.
November 21, 2019
It's dated now in terms of technology etc but that makes it amusing.
October 6, 2014
This is the first book in my life that I was so bored with a book that I couldn't read it. By the time I got to page 59 I was bored to pieces and I have been known to read the labels on toothpaste just to have something to read.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews