Book by Leigh Adams
Photographic covers, especially stunning ones of familiar places, attract attention. There’s something about a photograph that makes one wonder more about what is seen.
Here we have a nighttime view of Washington, D.C. The lone figure of a woman in the foreground looks toward familiar monuments of the city. The lit landmarks, the light reflected on the waters of the Potomac, and the night scene draw potential readers’ eyes. The cover is worthy of a political or legal thriller, but is it really?
The inside book jacket reads: “When single mom and computer security specialist Kate Ford is suddenly and mysterious put on administrative leave, she finds herself drawn into a the drama of a lurid kidnapping case with ties to her company. Kate has enough on her plate dealing with a medical condition that leaves her extra-sensitive to stimuli, but the case is too intriguing to leave untouched.”
The title is suggestive of a legal thriller, but the description leans more toward the political, especially with the line “what begins as a simple curiosity quickly leads her to the country’s darkest corners of power…”
Kate is hindered in her sleuthing by episodes of headache and nausea brought on by exposure to over stimulation. “It was as if she’d been engulfed by a tide and the tide had turned…” A much better example of what she faces surfaces in the second chapter when the sky appears to turn “that odd purple color.” Only it wasn’t. “Everything was bathed in a glow that was at first pale lavender, then violet, and then a deep purple that made it almost impossible to see.” Kate then finds it difficult to breathe. Though these episodes are detrimental, she also “sees” more than the average person. The “focus” isn’t always controllable, but she picks up on details that an ordinary person would miss.
This debut novel features an interesting heroine with an unusual trait. Something to consider for the to-be-read pile.
