DEVIL'S FEATHER

Minette Walters may share the title of "English Queen of Crime" with Agatha Christie, but don't expect to encounter Miss Marple in any of Walter's gripping tales of terror. There is nothing quaint about the life of reporter Connie Burns; working in the most dangerous locales, she witnesses wartime violence, devastation and depravity. It's all secondhand observations until Connie sets her sights on exposing a sadistic mercenary and suspected serial killer - waging her war against him results in her being held hostage in Iraq. Tortured, degraded, and then released by the psychopath, Connie flees to the English countryside in the hopes of escaping her captor's reach and erasing her vivid memories of the terror. While she huddles in dark rooms, shaking in fear, struggling to retain her sanity, you won't be able to help yourself from riding the panic attacks with her, feeling her paranoia and remaining hopeful that she can find some sort of justice to come out of her trauma.