Nameless by Debra Webb

When Vivian Grace seventeen she was kidnapped by a serial killer known as "Nameless" and was forced to kill him in order to escape. She has worked hard to get past that experience and to make a life for herself protecting other victims. She's now a rookie FBI agent determined to succeed at her job and advance in the Bureau. She already feels somewhat thwarted in that ambition because her mentor arranged to have her sent to the Birmingham field office instead of the higher profile assignment she requested. He's concerned that a Vivian's past makes her too vulnerable to work high profile cases, but there's nothing he can do to protect her when a local kidnapping turns into exactly the kind of high pressure case he'd hoped to shield Vivian from. In spite of his wishes, and her own nightmares, Vivian is determined to save the kidnapped child. To do that she reaches out for help from an agency legend.

FBI agent Ryan McBride focused all his attention on his work as a hostage negotiator. He had a perfect record, working on the most difficult cases, until a kidnapping went horribly wrong and the young victim was killed. As a result McBride was made the scapegoat for his boss' mistake and lost his job. His response was to go to Key West and crawl into a bottle and three years later he still hasn't crawled back out. When Vivian shows up on his doorstep his first impulse is to send her away, but when he hears the details of the case he's unable to resist returning to the job he was never quite able to let go. Soon he and Vivian find themselves drawn into a puzzle created by a psychopath determined to play on both their pasts to win a game where he's the only one who knows the rules.



This is yet another suspense novel that devotes a chunk of the book to the killer's POV. I would have been much happier without that, but it all in all it wasn't too bad and the rest of the story was interesting enough that I was still able to enjoy the book. The disgraced former agent out to redeem himself and the former victim looking to prove herself are both common character in suspense novels so both Ryan and Vivian could easily have come across as tired cliches, but I found them both interesting.

I think that was partially because the situation had more layers and shades of gray than are sometimes present in this kind of book. For example, the bureaucracy wasn't painted as all bad and the rogue hero as all good. It's made clear that Ryan's former boss screwed him over, but it's also clear that he made that easy to do by pushing too hard and breaking too many rules. Vivian's boss is a a jerk, but he's genuinely dedicated to his job and doesn't allow his reservations about Ryan to interfere. Even Vivian's mentor isn't all bad. He does manipulate her career for his own selfish reasons,but he's also right about her needing to deal more effectively with her past. The only thing that really disappointed me was the ending, which hinged on tying several thread of the story together in a way that was far too convenient for my tastes.


Grade: B-