THE DEVIL'S FEATHER, by Minette Walters, Knopf, 349 pages, $24.
In her 11th book of crime fiction, Minette Walters has closely examined the human psyche and produced a highly suspenseful thriller. The background reverts to 2002, when five women were discovered savagely murdered in Sierra Leone.
Connie Burns, a Reuters Africa correspondent, thinks she knows who did it — a British mercenary with an atrocious reputation for violence and brutality. She has met him — and she believes he's using the chaos of war to perform misogynistic fantasies without being detected.
An astonishingly assertive woman, Burns runs into him again in Baghdad — in 2004 — and when she confronts him with her suspicions, he takes her hostage and holds her in a cellar for three days. She emerges with her life intact and no bruises, but she is entirely traumatized and goes into seclusion.
She refuses to talk about what happened to her — and thus she becomes a familiar object for skepticism and criticism.
She finds what she thinks is the perfect hideaway in a remote village in the English countryside. Not even her parents know where she is. She is afraid the killer, whose name is MacKenzie, will come after her. But she also needs peace and quiet to overcome the fear and trauma of her abduction.
In effect, she starts over in this little village, renting an old house and becoming acquainted with several new people. Ironically, her landlady has a closely guarded secret that becomes an alternate plot line — revealing another psychopath to somewhat balance the character of MacKenzie.
One of the new friends, Jess, is a highly eccentric character, yet essential to Burns' recovery. Jess and the rest of the people in the village provide opportunities for Walters to be lighthearted — at times very funny — which is good, because it balances a rather dark story.
Walters is skillful in advancing the plot by occasionally dropping important nuggets of information that will eventually lead to a suspenseful climax. To great effect, she uses press releases, personal notes and e-mails to assist in keeping the reader's attention.
Walters' only problem is her tendency to multiply words in the dialogue to the point of tedium. The second plot line would have been better left out, partly because it takes so long to explain it — and partly because it detracts from the more serious main plot that is so carefully crafted.
The title, "The Devil's Feather," comes from an English saying that women sometimes unwittingly arouse sexual passion in a man. In this case, the term is applied to Connie Burns, to her detriment. Walters has distinguished herself with this legitimate, scary thriller.
E-mail: dennis@desnews.com