Body of Lies (Eve Duncan) - Hardcover

Iris Johansen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0553800973 ISBN 13: 9780553800975

Publisher: Bantam, 2002

Synopsis

From Iris Johansen, the New York Times bestselling author of The Search and Final Target, comes a taut, fast-paced, and terrifying psychological thriller that pushes the level of suspense to the absolute limit–and beyond. This time forensic sculptor Eve Duncan finds herself matched against a killer who will challenge her skill, test her courage, and threaten her family.

As a forensic sculptor, Eve Duncan deals in death every day of her life. It’s her job. And while it might seem macabre to some, Eve knows from personal experience that her work, giving a face and a name to the victims of violent death, helps bring closure to their families. Now that job is about to put not only her own life on the line...but the lives of everyone close to her.

It begins with a call from a high-ranking government official. He wants Eve to drop everything and come to Baton Rouge to identify the remains of an unknown murder victim. At first, Eve wants nothing to do with the project. She has finally found peace from her own tragic past, living a quiet life in a small lakeside cottage with Atlanta detective Joe Quinn and her adopted daughter, Jane. But a stunning series of seemingly unrelated events is about to upset all that.

Suddenly, Eve’s hard-won new world is turned upside down, and she flees to Baton Rouge to take on the project of identifying the skeleton. Forced to work in secrecy, given only the sketchiest of information, Eve can’t help but wonder if the high-level security that surrounds her is meant to protect her–or imprison her.

She hasn’t even begun work on the reconstruction when the first death occurs. Someone totally ruthless, someone who can strike anywhere at any time, and with seeming immunity, is determined to put a halt to her work. Soon the questions–and the threats to her own life–begin to mount as Eve realizes she has stumbled into the heart of a chilling conspiracy.

There is only one person who can give her the answers she needs. And that is the dead man himself. To survive, Eve must put her life on the line to uncover the deadly secret of his identity and learn the devastating truth buried beneath a body of lies.

About this title

Review:

Just as there are sculptors who insist they liberate forms imprisoned within marble and granite, Eve Duncan, the strong-willed heroine of Body of Lies, is a forensic sculptor driven by a need to liberate innocence from the shroud of death. Tops in her field, Eve obsesses over recreating the likenesses of faceless, decomposed murder victims, using only their bare skulls as a guide. It's a spooky career that began when Eve's own daughter, Bonnie, vanished and was later discovered, the girl's remains unrecognizable.

In Body of Lies, a killer uncovers a shocking truth about Bonnie, driving a rattled Eve to take a dangerous assignment in the darkest heart of bayou country. There, at the weird behest of a shady senator, Eve rebuilds the visage of the politician's late rival, a challenge that nearly results in her murder, strains her romance with a hard-bitten detective, and uncovers a fantastic global conspiracy over energy profits and much else. Wildly ambitious, Iris Johansen's Body of Lies inspires paranoia about the rich and powerful, though it gets unwieldy when Johansen's action writing and characters don't plausibly sustain the image of a secret society hell-bent on world domination. More effective are her bright supporting characters (especially Eve's Liverpudlian protector, Galen), bursts of descriptive wit, and insights into her wounded but dogged heroine. --Tom Keogh

From the Back Cover:

"[BODY OF LIES] keeps the reader rooting for its heroine every step of the way."
-Publishers Weekly

About this edition

• Publisher: Bantam
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0553800973
• ISBN 13: 9780553800975
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 340