Spring Girls

by Karen Katchur

Overview

She’s the only one who survived…and the only one who can help find the killer.

Another spring, another dead girl pulled from a lake in the Appalachian foothills: the latest victim in a series of murders with few leads. But Detective Geena Brassard and her partner, Parker Reed, finally land a break when they receive a tip about a previously unknown survivor of the so-called Spring Strangler.

The survivor’s reluctant to help with the case for reasons that aren’t all clear. Even so, Geena uncovers a connective thread between the victims, and recently discovered DNA brings her closer to the killer’s identity. But Geena knows the survivor has the most to offer the investigation—if also the most to lose.

Geena is torn between securing the surviving victim’s help and protecting her from further danger. One thing is certain: Geena and Parker must find answers before the killer claims another life—or returns to finish off the one who got away.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781542093248
Publisher:	Amazon Publishing
Publication date:	06/16/2020
Series:	Northampton County , #3
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	515,421
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Karen Katchur is an award-winning suspense novelist with a bachelor of science in criminal justice and a master’s degree in education. She lives in eastern Pennsylvania with her husband and two children. You can learn more at www.karenkatchur.com.

Editorial Reviews

04/13/2020

In Katchur’s captivating third Northampton County thriller (after 2019’s Cold Woods), it’s spring in Bangor, Pa., and another young woman has been found dead in a local lake, the fifth strangling victim in seven years with her hair neatly braided as if wearing a crown. Det. Geena Brassard has been working the Spring Strangler case for two years, first with her recently retired partner, Albert Eugenis, and now with a new partner, Det. Parker Reed, whom she isn’t sure she can trust. The two detectives make little progress, until Geena discovers that Albert is keeping a critical witness hidden for personal reasons—Janey Montgomery, the Spring Strangler’s intended first victim. An information leak creates a media circus that puts Janey’s life in jeopardy as Geena and Parker try to connect the dots. Distinctive characters enhance the fast-moving, twist-filled plot, and the killer’s identity comes as a nice surprise, despite the weak motive. Katchur is on a roll. Agent: Carly Watters, P.S. Literary. (June)

Publishers Weekly

Distinctive characters enhance the fast-moving, twist-filled plot, and the killer’s identity comes as a nice surprise…Katchur is on a roll.” —Publishers Weekly

“The dilemmas of two good women struggling in very different ways to do the right thing creates suffocating suspense.” —Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

2020-03-29
Detective Geena Brassard of the Pennsylvania State Police takes on a case that involves the most heinous springtime ritual imaginable.

Everyone in and around Bangor is unnerved when the body of legal secretary/college student Valerie Brown is pulled from Minsi Lake because she’s the third young woman who has been discovered raped and strangled at the rate of one a year. Geena is even more disturbed than everyone else because she knows that Valerie’s not the third victim but at least the fourth. Seven years ago, Janey Montgomery was attacked in a remarkably similar way but somehow survived to be interviewed by Detective Albert Eugenis, Geena’s partner and mentor. Geena pries Janey’s name out of Albert, since retired, who swears her to secrecy, and shares it with her current partner, Detective Parker Reed, whom she swears to secrecy. It doesn’t matter. Rumor swiftly spreads Janey’s name and secret far and wide. Reporters descend on her like vultures to ask, “How do you feel about being the only surviving victim of the Spring Strangler?” Janey’s psychologist, Dr. Helen Watson, begins to press her in uncomfortable ways. Fellow students and their parents lodge mounting complaints against her son, 6-year-old Christian, who’s always been difficult and may be graduating to violence. Could that be because he’s the child of Janey’s rapist, who’s graduated to serial murder?

The dilemmas of two good women struggling in very different ways to do the right thing creates suffocating suspense.

Kirkus Reviews