Split

From Barnes & Noble

The Barnes & Noble Review
Split, the second psychological thriller to be released in the U.S. by Australian novelist and former international fashion model Tara Moss, pits forensic psychology student and part-time model Makedde Vanderwall (from 2005's Fetish) against a mysterious madman who has been abducting attractive coeds from the University of British Columbia campus, brutalizing them, and then setting them loose in the Vancouver wilderness, where he hunts them down like animals.

Still recovering from the "incident in Sydney" a year earlier -- where she barely escaped a serial killer with a penchant for stiletto heels -- Mak is trying to get on with her life. But putting the past behind her is hard, especially when it involves Andrew Flynn, the handsome Australian detective who saved her life and stole her heart. When Flynn shows up unexpectedly in Vancouver for a conference, Mak is both excited and irritated. She has just begun seeing an attractive campus security guard named Roy Blake, and now her emotions are in turmoil once again. To complicate matters, a killer has been abducting university students, shooting them in the back with a high-powered rifle, and leaving their bodies in the wilderness. Tall, blonde, and breathtakingly beautiful, Mak could be the Hunter's next potential trophy…

Sexy, savvy, and brimming with style, Moss's addictively readable thriller will have readers staying up way past their bedtimes. It's no surprise the author is called Australia's No.1 crime writer: Split is a page-turner of the highest order. Paul Goat Allen

Publishers Weekly

In her second U.S. release, Australian crime novelist Moss sends her heroine, model and aspiring forensic psychologist Makedde Vanderwall, to a Vancouver campus, where a psychopath is picking off female students. The campus is also the site of a convention on psychopaths, which has drawn the world's best profilers including Mak's old flame, Det. Andy Flynn. It's been a year since the events of Moss's Fetish, in which Flynn saved Mak from a killer, but Mak refuses to reconsider Flynn, even after her current boyfriend begins acting suspiciously. As the body count rises, Flynn (backed by the experts conveniently assembled for the conference) tries to stop the killer before he gets to Mak. Despite the contrived setup (heard the one about the serial killer at the profiler's convention?), Moss handles her subject easily and expertly, making her novel both immersive and believable. Though readers who haven't read Fetish may be confused by references to the Stiletto Killer and the death of Mak's mother, those with a strong stomach and a taste for violence and who don't mind the occasional clunker ("Yikes. What's gotten into me?") should be sucked in by this sexy, smart thriller. (July) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.