Book Review: Deadly Intent

Deadly Intent by Laura Eno is a suspense/horror book. Bad things begin to happen in the town of Wood Park, but no one knows why. And they go from bad to really bad.

Here’s the back cover blurb:

Death stalks the small town of Wood Park after a violent thunderstorm wreaks havoc on the population and drops a stranger in its midst. Police Chief Jonathon Brier chases after clues, always a step behind, as citizens become more irrational with tragic consequences.

When the town is abandoned to its fate with no hope of any outside help, Jonathon must figure out how to combat the evil presence that taunts him before time runs out for everyone.

Deadly Intent has a core set of main characters, Brier being the main one. The town is not real small. They have schools and a police force and shops and a hospital. The population is big enough that there’s not a lot of panic when people begin to go crazy and kill others or get killed. They don’t even cancel Halloween trick-or-treating. Brier seems to take all the worrying onto his shoulders -- until soldiers block the town and allow no one to leave or enter. It’s up to Police Chief Brier and a doctor to somehow figure out what is causing people to go berserk.

People die in bizarre ways. Some are folks you’ve gotten to know in the book. Others are just townsfolk who, for no apparent reason, kill someone. Without a reason for why they would do such a thing, it’s hard for both the reader and the Police Chief to figure out who did the killing, let alone why. With no help from the outside, he’s on his own.

The killings are unexpected and horrible, and the cause of the epidemic is unknown.

I would have liked to get to know more of the people in the town so I felt some empathy for them before they kill or get killed. But that is difficult since, as the killings speed up, more and more people are dying.

I give Deadly Intent a rating of Hel-of-a-Writer because probably only a writer as adept as Laura Eno could have come up with such a creative plot.

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Powell’s Books

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FTC Disclaimer: Deadly Intent was sent to me by the author. This did not influence my review. It did influence my paranoia. Now, when I’m watering the drought-stricken tree out back, I watch the ravine behind the house to try to spot neighbors who might be creeping up on me with a motive other than getting my autograph. If they had a knife, I’d spray them with the water hose. They’d probably melt like the Wicked Witch in Wizard of Oz. If they were looking for an autograph, I do hope some of you in Internet Land would come to my funeral since I’d keel over in shock.