Find Me-Debra Webb

Find Me
Debra Webb
St. Martin’s, Jan 2009, $7.99
ISBN: 0312532954

NYC based investigative reporter Sarah Newton works for Truth magazine, traveling to locations in which the locals claim the supernatural committed murder; she debunks their mystical fears. However, Sarah is a loner who is used to people loathing her.

Sarah travels to freezing Youngstown, Maine where one teenage girl Valerie Gerard was found viciously sliced to death in a chapel and another Alicia Appleton is missing. Many townsfolk claim the curse has returned as similar murders occurred two decades ago. The City Council assigns lobsterman and newest member Kale Conner to escort the outsider around town; Sarah knows that means to help the town hide its secrets from her. As the police work the case, so does Sarah who soon begins to win over Kale to her side. Attracted to one another from the onset, they begin to fall in love, but neither has any hope for a future as he scorns her as a Manhattan pushy woman while she assumes he is her natural enemy although a dark secret from her own childhood closet is her real reason to keep him away.

FIND ME is a well written investigative romance starring a fascinating journalistic sleuth and a former dreamer. The story line is exciting from the onset as Sarah arrives alienating everyone. Kale is a strong character who gave up his dreams when his father became disabled; he goes from doubting antagonist to believer in his beloved. Sarah makes the tale work with her take no prisoners’ attitude and her Pygmalion Effect of expecting no cooperation so acts offensively which leads to no cooperation, her family history, and her loner status that the lobsterman finds heartbreaking. Although the townsfolk do not seem very frightened or frantic over a vicious murder and a probable second killing fans will appreciate this fine Manhattan-Maine romantic suspense thriller.

Harriet Klausner