I Can See You by Karen Rose

From the Publisher

Evie Wilson was the victim of the villain in DON'T TELL, an assault which resulted in paralysis on one side of her face. After her injury, Evie retreated into the virtual realm, seeking refuge from the public eye by interacting with online friends. Now, with the help of a surgeon, Evie's face is restored and she is ready to return to the real world. However, she remains connected to the Internet for her graduate thesis on using the virtual world as therapy to improve self-esteem. She has become an online shopkeeper who sells faces and bodies to users interested in building a new avatar on a website called "Shadowland." In her new role, Evie maintains "surveillance" over her test subjects to ensure they don't become too caught up in the intoxicating virtual realm.

Meanwhile, homicide detective Noah Webster has been investigating a string of suspicious suicides that he believes are connected murders. Noah's investigation leads him to Evie when one of her online test subjects is found dead of apparent suicide, but Evie believes otherwise.

Evie is shocked to find herself drawn to someone for the first time in many years and she's reluctant to trust Noah. However, he's the only one who believes her story about the suspicious death of her test subject, and he soon discovers that many of the apparent suicides in his case had avatars in "Shadowland."

As murder victims connected to the website begin to appear more frequently, Noah asks Evie to be his virtual guide in the investigation. However, they don't realize that the killer is closer than they think—and that he holds a special grudge against Evie.

Publishers Weekly

Virtual reality meets bloody reality in bestseller Rose's spine-tingling 10th thriller, which introduces the Minneapolis PD's “Hat Squad,” whose members earn snappy fedoras for successfully fighting crime. Almost six years have passed since Eve Wilson, a former runaway introduced in Rose's debut, Don't Tell (2003), moved from Chicago to the Twin Cities after a vicious assault. Plastic surgery has improved her looks, and she's begun researching a Web role-playing game, “Shadowland,” and how it can be used to build self-esteem. Eve also connects with a homicide detective investigating the Red Dress Killer, who finds some victims through Shadowland. Samantha Altman is the killer's first victim, but she's not identified until the second, Martha Brisbane, is found. When Eve learns Martha was a fellow research participant, she becomes a Hat Squad confidential informant. Rose keeps the action popping as the psycho claims more lives, hoping to add Eve to his list. (Aug.)

Library Journal

RITA Award winner Rose is back with another blockbuster romantic suspense novel in which she considers what happens when the real world and the virtual world violently collide. Plucky Eve Wilson, one of Rose's favorite victims (see Don't Tell and Nothing To Fear) has already been kidnapped twice, stabbed, and almost killed multiple times. It might be hard for some authors to devise new calamities, but Rose does a wonderful job of making Eve's current predicament an example of her growth and recovery since we last saw her. VERDICT It is not necessary to read the previous novels to enjoy this one, and fans of Rose's serial killer stories will be thrilled that Rose gives them all the tension; grisly, tortured minds; complex, interlocking plotlines; and nonstop action that are hallmarks of all her books. Highly recommended for all adult readers not offended by violence or some explicit sexual content. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 4/15/09.]—Crystal Renfro, Georgia Inst. of Technology, Atlanta

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