The Devil's Backbone

Kit Metcalf wakes up in a park and does not remember how she got there. She's works as a dancer in a gentleman's club called Blaze's in Austin. Kit could not be more different than her sister Jenny. Jenny is a detective, engaged to be married soon. Kit meets Luke, Jenny's fiancé who has been working undercover at Blaze's. Kit was able to fend off an attacker in the club's parking lot. She could barely handle the news that her sister was murdered. Not knowing who to trust, she decides to counseling. Dr. Wolfe is soon threatened to stop seeing Kit and physically attacked. Another dancer from the club, Cheryl is found dead. She can't help but feel she's next. Kit needs to trust Luke as she tries to help him investigate Jenny's death. Complex, psychological thriller that is hard to put down.

Katherine "Kit" Metcalf and her sister Jenny reacted differently to the family dynamics after their mom died. Whereas Jenny obeyed their martinet father by becoming a cop like him and is engaged to an undercover police officer, Kit chose philosophy in college and avoided anything remotely involving law enforcement. Adding to Kit's estrangement is a rape that she never has come to terms with or gotten over. In anger towards all males, Kit becomes a stripper at Austin's Blaze gentleman's club where she can safely tease men with glass between her and them. However, the dynamics change again when Austin police detective Jenny, investigating a porn ring and related murder tied to Blaze, is found dead. Needing to obtain justice for the sister she feels she let down, Kit begins to obtain therapy with psychiatrist Dr. Emily Wolfe and investigates her sibling's murder over the objections of everyone she knows. However one objector has personal reasons to prevent Kit from succeeding either with therapy or her case. That adversary attacks Dr. Wolfe and steals Kit's file. Kit ponders if it is her dad, her late sister's fiancé Luke Saner, or someone else close to her who needs the truth to remain buried perhaps in her subconscious mind. More a psychological thriller than an amateur sleuth tale, fans of both sub-genres and anyone who appreciates a deep character study will want to read this superb candid tale. The story line is action-packed, but it is the psyche of Kit that grips the audience as she grieves with no help from her stiff upper lip family who didn't help her when her mom died. Kim Wozencraft provides an incredible look at a woman over the edge without a safety net. The Devil's Backbone is a chillingly thrilling tale. Harriet Klausner