"reprint of a strong mystery"

She has made plenty of money being a model based in New York City but now Nickie Callahan has to deal with the fact that at twenty seven she is over the hill and her career is finished. Her best friend Mimi invites her to share her home in Knolls, Tennessee and to attend college to finish herEnglish degree. She jumps at the chance. After settling in the she is surprised to hear that one of the students was raped because Knolls is a low crime area.

The rapist strikes again and closer to home when he attacks Barbara Tucker, a teacher at the college. Mimi's psychologist brother Cully hints there have been more rapes that have gone unreported and the two women should be extra careful. Nickie wakes up one night to find out she is being raped. She lies still as she doesn't fight him but the trauma affects her in a different way. She is determined to find out who this monster is so the police can arrest him and she has Barbara helping her. They make a list of who they know who fits the physical description and by elimination only five people remain on it. They are thinking of giving up but when Nickie's neighbor is raped and killed, they decide to keep digging knowing they are putting themselves in danger.

Long before Charlaine Harris wrote the Aurora Teagarden mysteries, she wrote stand alone mysteries in the 1980's. This is a reprint of one of those books and readers can see the author's trademark quirky characters and red herrings in A SECRET RAGE. Although the heroine doesn't act like the typical rape victim, her actions seem plausible including her having a sexual relationship with Cally and her need to take down the monster that harmed her and others.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted September 14, 2007

Originally published by Ballantine, July 1985

Summary

Former New York City model Nickie Callahan is looking forward to the easy life when she moves to the sleepy college town of Knolls, Tennessee. But the women of Knolls are not safe. And as Nickie gets swept up in a string of brutally violent crimes, she must take matters of justice into her own hands.