Minotaur Books
May, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-312-61155-2
Hardcover, 304 PAGES
$24.99/ $29.99 Can.

Reviewed by Larry W. Chavis

Moriah Dru is an ex-cop from the Atlanta PD who left and founded Child Trace, Inc., at the urging of juvenile court judge Portia Devon, a childhood friend. With her police background and romantic relationship with Lt.  Richard Lake of the force, Ms. Dru has been in the forefront of many missing-child cases, but none, perhaps, as urgent as the one with which this book opens.

Her planned weekend off with Lt. Lake is interrupted by a call from the judge: a house fire has claimed the lives of two foster parents in the system, but the two little girls are missing. So, Dru and Lake set off in a desperate bid to uncover what happened and find the girls.

The book’s cover carries the notice that it is the winner of the Malice Domestic Best First Traditional Mystery award, but one should not suppose that means ‘cozy,’ or that it is lacking in thrills. By Patricia Highsmith’s definition of suspense fiction, THE END GAME is chock-full of suspense. All the action is packed into a single twenty-four hour period, the fate of two innocent little girls hanging fire the whole time. But it does fit the traditional mystery category in that there is a puzzle, with clues and fair play with the reader, and a mostly satisfactory resolution. If no book is perfect, it might be said that this one, in spite of its time frame, is a bit slow in getting started, and might require a bit of patience on the reader’s part before it gets up to speed, much like the freight trains that play a role in the story, but that aside, Ms. Finger has written a book that will fill some pleasant hours.