Chasing Fear by Mackenzie Rice is a forced proximity thriller with an age gap romance.
Olivia Sanchez catches the attention of a maniacal killer preying on young women in her small home town. Forced to return from a great job in New York City after making a life altering mistake, she now finds herself on the run from a psychopath the police haven’t yet come close to catching.
The police officer who saves her invites Olivia into her life to protect her, but Ivy and Olivia soon discover they like each other a lot. It’s a race against time against a nearly ghost-like killer who seems to have made it their life’s work to kill Olivia, no matter who they have to go through to do it.
Writing
The slam bang opening of a person being chased through the woods at knifepoint by a murderous fiend is a fun start if you enjoy that kind of thing, and I do. There is a lot of good description in that sequence and throughout the book. I’m not one who needs to know every detail described everywhere a character goes, and I felt like this author at least for me got the amount just right.
After the fast opening the pace slows for the most part and becomes an intimate tale of two women quickly falling in love during a dangerous episode in their lives. Not everything is as it seems, for example Ivy isn’t exactly what she appears at first. Not being entirely sure of what’s going on definitely ups the tension throughout.
The mystery of who the killer is remains elusive for a really long time. When they are revealed, and their backstory revealed, I found their motives to be reasonable, for a psychopathic killer anyway.
Pros And My Favourite Parts
As I mentioned above, the book begins with a really slam bang horror movie style sequence. After that it becomes a very intimate first person account of a woman who isn’t perfect but very well meaning who has no idea why this person is trying so hard to kill her.
This book is another example of a romance that doesn’t go through an indecisive stage, debating if they really like each other or not. From the beginning there are romantic sparks that their dangerous situation fans into flames. Even with how quickly that happens, I liked the feel of the relationship.
The first person account ratchets up the fear factor and gives the reader an intimate look at what it would be like for someone being stalked by a very dangerous person. It also affects how well the mystery works because Olivia can only comment internally on what happens to her, not the police investigation. She’s in the dark so the reader is in the dark.
Heads Up
There are some editing and formatting issues that might draw a reader out of the story.
The Conclusion
Olivia returns to her home town from working in New York City with her life in shambles and falls into the path of a psychopathic serial killer. She is saved once by a police officer who quickly steals her heart, but can Ivy and Olivia continue to elude a very determined killer?
The book has the feeling of 1970s psycho killer movies that I enjoy watching. The killer is elusive and dangerous, nearly to the point of feeling supernatural. Ivy is a hunky cop determined to protect Olivia, and the two quickly fall in love. With the world seeming to be against their very survival, the romance doesn’t feel forced but rather an escalated timeline to an inevitable attraction.
Excerpt from Chasing Fear by Mackenzie Rice
“Olivia? Olivia Sanchez?” A voice whispered in a familiar woman’s tone. I opened my eyes slowly, trying to figure out where I was, my vision slightly blurry, the room feeling like a twilight zone.
“Yeah?” I answered, looking around the room, realizing I was in a hospital bed. There was a little side table in front of me with a giant water cup, and a plate of food covered with a brown dome top lid. I hadn’t even realized it was there. The room was stale and old, typical for a small-town hospital. The paint starting to chip around the trim of the walls, the floors scraped and scratched from years of use.
I shifted around in the bed, sitting up slightly, groaning as I realized every bone in my body was sore and throbbing. I looked down, the IV in my hand starting to burn, bruises streaming all up and down my arms, at least the parts I could see. I had a giant bandage from where that asshole had tried to slice my arm off.
I looked over, making eye contact with a woman police officer, her gaze never leaving mine. She was sitting in the recliner beside my bed, a note pad in her hands and a shiny chrome badge on her chest.
“Do you want me to help you sit up?” The officer said, jumping from her chair, sitting the notepad down and walking over to me before I could even respond.
“Yeah, that would be great.” I said, my throat burning as I spoke. My voice cracking and faltering with each word I spoke. It felt like I swallowed a glass full of metal shards and they had scratched and torn down the back of my throat.
The officer leaned down beside the bed, looking for the switch to lean it forward, her name tag flashing toward me. Ivy, that’s the police officer that saved me. I thought to myself as I realized who she was and why she was here, memories from the man chasing me starting to come back in bits and pieces, flashing in and out of my mind, my eyes closing as I realized it wasn’t just all a bad dream.
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Bits and Bobs
ASIN number: B0BTC934Q1
Publisher: Indie Author
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