Review #35: The Wild Zone by Joy Fielding

Title: The Wild Zone

Author: Joy Fielding

Publisher: Atria (Simon and Schuster)

Format: Advanced Reading Copy from Publisher

Genre: Mystery/Thriller

ISBN: 978-1-4165-8529-9

Release Date: February 23, 2010

Rating: 5/5

My Review and Description:

This is one of Joy Fielding's strongest thrillers to come along in a few years. For those of you new to my blog, I picked her for this month's Author Love-a-Thon, which basically picks a favorite author of mine to highlight. She is one of my favorite mystery/thriller authors. A few of her books have lacked punch and didn't hold up to some of her more powerful ones, like See Jane Run but this one definitely packs a heated punch. She keeps you spinning with quite a heart pounding adventure.

The scene is Miami/South Beach. A bar called The Wild Zone.

The cast...

Kristin= the voluptuous blonde bartender, eye candy for her guests but holding secrets of abuse from her past.

Jeff= her boyfriend-cocky, confident and a fan of any eye candy.

Will= his brother-reserved, conflicted, unsure of why he ran away to Miami from Princeton.

Tom= Jeff's friend-home from Afghanistan on dishonorable discharge and pissed at the world.

Lainey= Tom's wife and the reason for most of his anger.

Suzy= the mysterious woman who enters The Wild Zone one night and tangles them all in her destructive web.

At first, I was a little put off in the beginning due to some extremely violent and crude thoughts and actions from the three male characters. Cocky young males are one thing but when you throw in pig headed women abusers, that's a whole other ball of wax. That just generally ticks me off.

But after about 75 pages the characters started to develop and the story line progressed. You get more of the history and the motivations of each character (even though I still didn't like some of them).

The destructive web that Suzy weaves is quite simple or so I thought. She has an abusive husband and she wants someone to kill him. Which one of three will she pick? Who has the balls to do it? What happens after?

I couldn't put it down. I read 40 pages yesterday and the rest of it today during nap time (oh, blessed nap time) and a bit during dinner while my husband fed the little one. 368 pages total. Sometimes I amaze myself when I get going.

The book really is that readable. If you have a few hours, you can really get far. Fielding spun a pretty clever tale this time and the ending really caught me off guard. I wasn't expecting it and I just love it when that happens.

I received my copy quite early and I really couldn't wait to read it. It is due out February 23 and once again, if you get a Gift Card for the holidays...I would save it and splurge on this one. If you are in the mood for a fast paced, tense, suspenseful ride, I would add The Wild Zone to your list. It will not disappoint. I'm glad Fielding's still got it.

Thank you to Wendy from Simon and Schuster for sending me a copy of this book.

Joy Fielding's website.

Happy Reading!

red headed book child