A FACE TO DIE FOR

FACE TO DIE FOR: ANDREA KANE

Lives change at the drop of a hat or the flick of a burning match. Imagine looking into a mirror and wondering who you really are and what your future might hold. Three women age 27 are about to enter a world that will make them feel as if they have taken a trip into the Twilight Zone. Secrets, lies, deceits and one man who decided their fate in order to keep a promise to someone else and protect his own identity and future. A vicious killer leaving their three young daughters, triplets alone in their cribs not even knowing that they were born and even existed, struck down Carla and Anthony Ponti. What happens will shed light on the adoption process, the power of one man to hide the truth and three young women who will never be the same. But, first let’s meet Brianna Mullen a young girl whose life is being threatened by her college professor. Like so many others that are beautiful and strike a special chord with the male population this young girl finds herself the object of Professor Hanover’s imagination thinking he will use threats, force and the power of the grade to get he to comply with his sick demands. But, Lina Brando is her best friend and has given her at least for now a temporary save haven but little does she know that sometimes no matter how you try to hide from a stalker you can’t.
The team of Forensics Instincts has been called in to help rid her of this intrusion in her life. Meet Casey Woods the head of the organization, Yoda the voice of the computer who was created by Ryan another team member and is my favorite character. We could all use Yoda to do our research and provide us with the answers that humans might not be able too. Mark, Patrick, Hutch or at times assists, Claire or Clairvoyant, John, and Emma the youngest member and most enthusiastic of the team and finally Hero the star of the team and the greatest security dog in the world who has been trained to identify scents indicative of any criminal and able to it faster than any DNA test. Brianna enters and explains her plight and the fact that this professor has come on to her at least four times. With the help of Lina, who Casey wants to meet and get a handle about, the team hopes to find a way to trap this stalker and rid the streets and school of this dangerous pedophile. While the professor thinks that no one is on to him the team learns more about his habits, other students that might have been victims and then uses Emma to trap him at his own game. Knowing he is out there is frightening enough but when he invades Brianna’s home, tears apart her personal items and then stalks and watches her from a distance things escalade out of control and Brianna is more than shaken up. Emma who is young, enthusiastic and the right person to use her feminine wiles and lure this Professor right where the team wants him to be seems to be the right one for this part of the mission. But, can she pull it off. Told she would be enrolled in his class and have a certain advantage with both Marc and Ryan able to help her through a pair of earrings containing special technology, she manages to hold her own but not very well. Mean, nasty and belligerent the Professor does everything in his power to embarrass Emma but she is smart and what she does next and told to do will hopefully bring him down.
Watching Emma work her wiles on the professor was really the ingenious work of author Andrea Kane making the story more realistic as Hanover bits his tongue, thinks he is in the birddog seat and waiting until Monday to meet with Emma hoping his private place will lure her into his lair. With this case in hand and solved the next will set there women on downward spiral changing their lives at different times.
Gia Russo an aggressive, smart and tenacious wedding planner is mistaken for Danielle Murano by a young woman named Sarah. Sure that she is Danielle, she peaks Gia’s interest and finding her needing to know more about the person in the picture on the cell phone she is shown that is a mirror image of her. Not really thinking any further then to get to meet veterinarian Dr. Danielle Murano, she PM’s her on Facebook in a private message and from there you won’t believe what happens as they agree to meet in New York and their first impressions of each other will shock them both. When Dani arrives in New York it takes Gia a few moments to compose herself as she sees her standing there. Shock, delight and an instant bond as they go for drinks, dinner and share their family childhood pictures and items not knowing that someone is listening in, knows their every move and will stop at nothing to prevent what someone set in place 27 years ago. First impressions are sometimes the best and dealing with their similarities and differences someone wants to make sure that they separate and fast. Deciding to go for DNA tests to determine if they are sisters or not, Danielle and Gia are both targeted by this dangerous person who wants them to have nothing more to do with each other. Dani is waiting for Gia to complete some work on an event she is working on. Walking the streets of NY little did she realize while texting and not focused on the public her surroundings that someone would knock her down and steal her purse. Within this purse when the police finally come, and someone returns it to her, she learns the only thing missing are her family photos. Scared, frightened and moving her reservations up to leave New York earlier then planned, she also notifies her boyfriend Gabe about her plans even before meeting Gia. Gia is upset but when someone ransacks her apartment and burns her family photos why does the police accuse her of leaving a candle lit and causing the fire and not putting it out before leaving for work. Fortunately a neighbor saw the smoke, called the police and poor Gia took the blame. At this point learning they were identical twins, the tests showing them as twins now the mystery and plot thickens a they need to find some help to solve who is after them both, who wants them separated and get the information about their adoptions and whether their parents knew about this from the start. Enter Forensic Instincts who Gia remembers she helped plan Marc Devereraux’s wedding and would enlist his help to start the ball rolling. Calling them was the first step getting to talk to Marc and an immediate appointment lucky. When arriving there Yoda the computer and security computer and better than any real person that announces visitors, relates they have arrived and from this point on they are told by Casey and the team what is expected of them and the rules they would have to follow.
Speaking with both of their parents would take special planning and hopefully they will come aboard to work with the team. But, somehow after speaking with both sets of parents about the adoptions they realized that something was wrong and that the lawyer that was hired was not really a lawyer and the entire process orchestrated by someone else but who and why? Lina and Emma are friends and her father is running for office and wants a seat in the House of Representatives. How would you describe their relationship?
Sarah Rosner had mistaken Gia for Dani and right up to the mugging, the fire in Gia’s apartment and the DNA results things started from the moment Sarah told Gia about Dani and the mix-up. Using burner phones to hide themselves and not be overhear anymore and added to that something special that the team gave them the girls would learn that their plans were noted and their phones hacked and someone was listening on Dani’s computer. Gia explained that living in New York and knowing Marc was her link to FI and the team. Claire promises that they will help her and she needs some of their personal items to make sure that they are definitely sisters, linking their DNA and someone from the team would collect what was needed. Meeting with the Muranos and the Russos was the first plan of action and getting the items too. Each set of adoptive parents were told where they could live and where they could not even visit so when Dani comes to New York the killer realizes that the promise is broken but not by the parents and that coming to New York would foil the plan set in motions 27 years ago. Fear, anger, disloyalties, lies, deceits, murder and a bond and promise to a brother that is no longer alive and three young women never knew that the others existed. How does the murder in the prologue connect many of the events in the present? There is a killer out there that might never be caught as author Andrea Kane weaves her own special spider’s web to snare the killer and hopefully before Dani and Gia are his next victims. A double homicide started it all. A case of mistaken identity sets off a set of events that spirals in many directions as once again author Andrea Kane delivers more than must a surprise ending to readers but leaves us wondering just how everyone will deal the lies and betrayals and learn some harsh realities and truths. Will she be the daughter they so dearly love or not? Just how will the wheels of justice move and in whose direction? A killer/kidnapper so diabolical, so heinous and so angry that he would do anything to hide from detection as he was hiding in plain sight and almost invisible to the naked eye. When you look in the mirror will you too see A FACE TO DIE FOR?
Fran Lewis: Just reviews/MJ magazine