BOOK REVIEW ~ Cruelty To Innocents ~ May 23, 2011 by Dolores Ayotte

Title: Cruelty To Innocents (The 911 Abductions)

Authors: CK Webb & DJ Weaver

Publisher: Suspense Publishing

This novel starts off with a bang. You are out of the gate so fast that it can’t help but grab your immediate attention. There’s no way that I could have ever predicted the outcome. Cruelty To Innocents is a real page turner and a book that you won’t want to miss out on.

It starts off in the small town of Aberdeen, Maryland. A typical single mother, Chloe, is having a discussion with her thirteen year old daughter Danni, on the way to the grocery store. This heated discussion is about an unchaperoned event that Chloe doesn’t want her daughter to attend. After this point is settled, Chloe and Danni enter into a grocery store and witness an older man having a massive heart attack. Chloe instinctively tries to resuscitate this dying man and while doing so her daughter mysteriously disappears. To anyone’s recollection, this is the first ever abduction to take place in this small community.

The plot of the story quickly thickens as Sloanne, Chloe’s best friend returns to Aberdeen to support her during this worrisome and frantic time. Sloanne has not been to Aberdeen for several years because of her past. She has no desire to return but her friend’s need outweighs her uneasiness. There is much intrigue and suspense to follow as Sloanne witnesses a tragic accident and meets someone from her past, an old school mate by the name of Shawn. She hardly recognizes this “ruggedly handsome” fireman who was once the “scrawny kid” she remembers from her youth.

As the novel unfolds, during another unfortunate tragedy two more young children, a set of twins, mysteriously disappear from the van they are sitting in as their parents assist in the crisis at hand. What is happening in this almost crime free town of Aberdeen?  Two mysterious abductions in a matter of days….and then there’s Simone who has been beaten to a pulp and lays in a coma.  Will she ever wake up? Will she survive her brutal attack?  Can she help identify her attacker? Are the abductions and this horrible beating connected? So many questions and so few answers. The police are on full alert. What will happen next? Sloanne is now tapping into her background as the daughter of a deceased police officer. Will she be able to get to the bottom of these unprecedented events?

Four miles away from Aberdeen, in the small community of  Havre de Grace, another mysterious abduction takes place. Sloanne along with Shawn and Chloe are putting their heads together to find the common thread in order to unravel this sadistic mystery. Every time a young girl disappears, it seems to be at the scene of some kind of emergency. Is this just a co-incidence or can they piece together this case?  Will Sloanne follow in her father’s footsteps and come up with the much-needed clues?

CK Webb and  DJ Weaver have co-authored this well-written, suspense novel with numerous twists and turns. The unknown and the desire to know more keep you riveted to every word and each and every page.  This dynamic mother-daughter duo have managed to write a book in such a way that it makes the reader feel like they are actually viewing a movie as they read it. I could mentally visualize all that was taking place making it  virtually impossible to not become part of the action. I eagerly returned to read this book time and time again in order to see what could possibly happen next as the clues unfolded to solve the mystery in “Cruelty To Innocents”.  You will not be able to put this book down.   

CK Webb was born and raised in Mississippi, and dreamed of writing like the greats; Emily Bronte, Edgar Allan Poe, and Stephen King, to name a few. CK joined the US Navy and traveled the world, but eventually returned to settle down in the tiny town of Millport, Alabama. A self-proclaimed ‘reformed bad girl’, this thirty-something writer now shares her life with her husband and two beautiful children.

CK also enjoys spending time with her friends, family, and book club. Although CK delights in preying on the fears of others and enjoys killing people…thankfully she does it the legal way; in her novels. She has just completed the first two novels in the ‘Innocents’ series which she co-wrote with her best-friend and mother, DJ Weaver. CK writes in a variety of other genres.

 

Originally from Pascagoula, Mississippi, DJ Weaver relocated to north Mississippi in 1980. She attended Mississippi University for Woman and Mississippi State University, studying paralegalism and Human Resources Management.  DJ recently completed two books in the three-novel Innocents series, Cruelty to Innocents: The 911 Abductions and Collecting Innocents, which she co-wrote with her daughter and best friend, CK Webb.

DJ writes in a variety of genres. When she isn‘t writing, DJ develops and maintains WebbWeaver Review blog, where she reviews books and interviews published authors regularly. She serves as co-chairwoman of WebbWeaver Book Club. DJ also writes book reviews for Suspense Magazine. DJ is a 50-something year old mother and grandmother who works part-time and makes her home in Millport, Alabama.

Websites: http://theinnocents.weebly.com WEBWEAVER

FB fanpages:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Webb-Weaver-Fans/104281169603829

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Author-CK-Webb/154867487887428

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Author-DJ-Weaver/156387674395890

FREE DRAW ~ Anyone who leaves a comment on any article from now until June 15th, gets their name put in a draw for a free copy of my book “Growing Up & Liking It”.  The more comments that you leave the greater your chances of winning. Good Luck!