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Reviewed by Viga Boland for Readers' Favorite
Oh boy! If you like reading books you can't put down, you just have to read The Calm Before the Storm by Elle Klass. Talk about psychological thrillers that grab you by the throat and with deft strokes, slice into you murder after murder, much as the protagonist Evan O'Connor does!
Evan's beginnings as a serial killer are rooted in the vicious anger he feels toward a mother who sexually abused him repeatedly from an early age. Unable to take any more, he murders all but one member of his family, his baby sister, Emily. Unfortunately, even after 10 years in a facility where he is a wonderfully behaved and intelligent child and released at 18, he is still completely haunted by his mother and can't keep her voice and actions out of his head. He believes the only way to rid himself of her is to keep on killing families like theirs, and that's what he does over the next 15 years, against a backdrop of hurricanes and storms...the perfect settings for Hitchcock horror movies.
On Evan's trail throughout The Calm Before the Storm is a "carrot-topped" cop who's convinced he's the infamous "Hurricane Killer," but is unable to prove it. Her pursuit of him is as relentless as his need to continue murdering. As we all hope and expect, the sociopathic Evan eventually is the cause of his own destruction, but at the hands of someone he least expects. As he meets his deserved ending, the reader's surprise is as great as Evan's, bringing the book to a deliciously satisfying conclusion.
The Calm Before the Storm by Elle Klass is the second book in a trilogy. I have to say that Elle Klass sure knows how to plot and execute a thriller. She doesn't waste readers' time; she has us gripping the book tightly as she brings in twists and turns we don't expect at all, keeping us hooked page after page. I enjoy and admire writers who can do this. Upon researching this book and writer, I found out The Calm Before the Storm by Elle Klass is also available as an audiobook. How great is that? But I do have one suggestion: don't listen to it before sleeping!
