The Prey

by: Allison Brennan

Published by: Ballantine Books

Reviewed by Andrea Sisco

There are numerous thrillers on the bookshelves and I must have missed something. As much as I read, I was not aware of the number of women producing exciting and gritty page turners where evil serial killers litter the landscape and bright, strong and determined women fight the battle to rid that landscape of its tormentors. Author Brennan is one of those women.

Rowan Smith is a former FBI agent turned best-selling author. She's temporarily left her Colorado home for Malibu and the world of Hollywood screenwriting.

After leaving the FBI some four years earlier, Rowan believes she's outrun and outwitted the demons that have chased her since childhood. But when someone begins murdering people in eerily similar manners as the murders in Rowan's books, and possesses information about her that few people in her life know, she is frightened enough to accept the protection of a bodyguard.

The only way Rowan can stop the killer is to face her own tormented past. But even then, can she save others from a horrendous death? Can she save herself?

Allison Brennan has written a scintillating and frightening novel where she invites us into the mind of the prey and the predator. And while we might want to look away, we're compelled to watch because we have to know how it ends.

The plot of The Prey is ingenious. I however like my suspense/thrillers free from romance. It's distracting to me to have a serial killer on the loose and people "falling" for each other. I also understand that others enjoy the mix and that it's a personal choice. I also figured out "what was going on" fairly early in the book but that didn't dissuade me from continuing because the plot was so interesting that I wanted the explanation. I wasn't disappointed.

Armchair Interviews says: A good thriller with some romance. If you like that combination you'll want to read her previous books and be on the lookout for her February 2006 release, The Hunt. I know I'm going to read it.