Review: What Doesn't Kill Her by Carla Norton

Summary:

Reeve LeClaire is a college student, dammit, not Daryl Wayne Flint’s victim. Not anymore—not when Reeve is finally recovering a life of her own after four years of captivity.

Flint is safely locked up in Olshaker Psychiatric Hospital, where he belongs. He is walking the grounds of the forensic unit, performing his strange but apparently harmless rituals. It seems that he is still suffering the effects of the head injury he suffered in the car crash that freed Reeve seven years ago. Post-concussive syndrome, they call it.

For all that Flint seems like a model patient, he has long been planning his next move. When the moment arrives, he gets clean away from the hospital before the alarm even sounds. And Reeve is shocked out of her new life by her worst nightmare: Her kidnapper has escaped.

Less than 24 hours later, Flint kills someone from his past--and Reeve's blocked memories jolt back into consciousness. As much as she would like to forget him, she knows this criminal better than anyone else. When Flint evades capture, baffling authorities and leaving a bloody trail from the psychiatric lock-up to the forests of Washington state, Reeve suddenly realizes that she is the only one who can stop him.

Reeve is an irresistibly brave and believable heroine in Carla Norton's heart-stopping new thriller about a young woman who learns to fight back.

Publication Date: June 30, 2015

I liked What Doesn’t Kill Her a lot, but I do wish I knew this was the second book in the series before starting the thriller. Although the book can be read as a standalone, I do feel it would have helped me better understand the characters if I read the first novel.

Reeve was a good character and I liked that the trauma of her past has given her an awesome inner strength. Instead of being frozen in terror over Flint’s escape, she tries to stop him before she becomes his next victim. Flint was unbelievably scary and the flashback scenes with him gave me the serious chills.

The book is a quick read with a lot of suspense throughout. I never felt like the plot stalled or grew bored with the characters. There were a couple of moments where I felt Reeve’s answers to questions about Flint came a little too easily, but other than that, the plot and conclusion was solid.

Fans of psychological thrillers will enjoy What Doesn’t Kill Her. I look forward to reading more from the author.  

Rating: 4/5 Stars

Thanks to the publisher for a copy of the novel for review!