SPIRIT OF THE STRAIGHTEDGE by Babs Lakey
Over My Dead Body! Books - May 2001
ISBN: 1931616000 - Paperback
Review 1 - Suspense - for extreme violence and sexual content

Reviewed by Nancy Mehl for MyShelf.com
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Elsie Sanders is angry. And when Elsie is angry - men should run for cover. Her roommate and best friend, Lynn Fahey, has been murdered - perhaps slaughtered would be a better word to describe the vicious carnage left behind by a murderer who revels in pain and suffering. The police haven't found the killer - but Elsie is determined that he will pay - and pay big. Her life becomes a obsessive game of hide and seek while she waits for the day she can tap her prey and say, "Tag. You're dead!"

Detective Gerald Lawrence, nicknamed, "Law," is haunted by Lynn's brutal murder - and by her innocent and traumatized roommate, Elsie. However, his attention is now focused on a series of violent killings against men. Men are being murdered and sexually mutilated, and the police are under fire from the community to solve the crimes. Fingers of destruction and blood are gripping Law's heart and mind - and death from the past is shaking hands with death in the present. Can Law stop the lethal game before someone else dies?

Babs Lakey has written a disturbing book. She takes us inside a twisted and perverse mind. We find we don't want to be there, yet we can't pull ourselves away. The violence is unsettling - and the sexual content is graphic. This is not the kind of book I would normally read - but Lakey's talent made me keep turning the pages. If being inside the mind of a demented serial killer is your cup of tea, you won't find a better - or worse experience anywhere.

SPIRIT OF THE STRAIGHTEDGE makes you wonder what kind of horror exists in the minds of strangers - and what each of us might be capable of. Lakey is a masterful storyteller. This is a book you won't soon forget - no matter how hard you try.