Sacrificial Muse

Sabrina Vaughn, Book #2

By Maegan Beaumont

ISBN# 9780738739922

Author’s Website:  www.maeganbeaumont.com

Brought to you by OBS reviewer Jerjen

Sacrificial Muse by Maegan Beaumont is a great murder/suspense book.  But to me it was almost as much of a story about a damaged homicide detective.  It is a story about how much the human body and mind can take before totally crumbling.

Sabrina Vaughn is a homicide detective who has returned to work after being held captive for 83 days.  During her time of captivity she was raped, tortured and shot by her brother.  The brother that she eventually kills.  The brother who is inside her head, taunting her and talking to her daily.  To say the Sabrina has physical and emotional problems would be a big understatement.  Her life has been turned into a media circus and her immediate supervisor is trying to get her removed from her duties.  On top of that, she has some psycho sending her letters and flowers, calling her Calliope.  Her stalker sends her nine red roses everyday.  Then she receives a phone call from her stalker directing her to an apartment where a dead body is found.  The chase is on for Sabrina to find the stalker/killer before more bodies turn up.

Along the way Sabrina is able to enlist the help of her partner, a special police friend and even a reporter who she despises.  But she is very reluctant to ask for help from anyone, thinking she can take care of things by herself.  Physically, she has a wounded leg that makes even walking very painful.  She refuses to go to physical therapy because she feels she can heal her leg without help.  Like I said, she thinks she can take care of everything by herself.

The mystery/suspense aspect of this book is very good.  There are twists and turns along the way that kept me guessing until the very end.  There is a lot of action taking place and the descriptive writing made the action seems non-stop.  I felt like there were no wasted words, everything written had meaning and purpose.  At times I found myself holding my breath, thinking “Oh no, what’s going to happen next.  How is Sabrina going to get herself out of this mess?”.  I had to keep turning pages to find the outcome.

As good as the mystery/suspense is, I think the part I like the most about this book is Sabrina’s struggles with her own demons and problems.  As tough as she wanted to pretend to be, you could tell that she was struggling and really did need help.  When it came to her family and friends, she had a softer vulnerable side.  This made her seem very real and human to me and i wanted to cheer for her and help her.  When I read a book I want to like the characters and care about them.  I was able to do both with Sabrina.

The writing style flowed easily and the writing was very descriptive.  When reading about the pain in Sabrina’s leg, I could almost feel pain in my own leg.  When things were going from bad to worst, I could feel the tension and the despair Sabrina was experiencing.  To me, this is the sign of a good author, being able to make you feel things just by reading their written words.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good mystery/suspense book.  I would also recommend this book to those you enjoy a good psychological book.  Sacrificial Muse was the story of Sabrina after her attack.  Carved In Darkness is the book where the attack takes place.  I wish I had read that book first because I think I would have understood Sabrina even better.  I plan to remedy that soon and get the first book to read.

*OBS would like to thank the publisher for supplying a free copy of this title in exchange for an honest review*