Saturday, September 3, 2011

Citizen Out – Marie Crist

You've heard the saying "life got in the way".  Well Life is what has gotten in the way of my reading and reviewing as much as I usually do.  I've picked up this book many times and just started to read it only to have to put it down.  I sat down and read it this last week and I am so glad I was able to finish it.  This is a book that brought back memories of a child who lived down my street disappearing.  To this day she's never been found.  It also brought back the memory of a 7 year old girl, the niece of a friend from church who went missing on her way home from school.  Her body was later found in a wooded area.  I knew the man who murdered her.  I had graduated with him.  You can't always tell from the outward appearance or behavior who is or is not a predator.  They are sneaky and good at not getting caught.  This is a must read book.


Publisher:  Reaction Press
Pages:  276
Source:  I received a copy fore review from the publisher
Genre:  Adult Thriller

 Product Description
A man patiently watches a group of young girls walk home from school, waiting for the perfect moment to take the one child he has designated as his next victim. However, what this predator does not know is that he, too, is being stalked. There is someone in the shadows—a trained Citizen—who is ready to make sure that the child under his assigned protection is never harmed. One pedophile, one abuser, one killer at a time; this Citizen and others like him will take a stand against those who prey on the weak and the innocent.

About the Author
Marie has taken an interest in the welfare of children for many years. Her own parents have served as guardians for the foster care system for more than a decade, giving Marie the opportunity to meet many children who have come from troubled backgrounds. All too often, the children Marie encountered were victims of sexual abuse, either at the hands of their biological parents or while living in one of the temporary foster homes in which they had been placed. Marie saw the lasting effects that a child who is the victim of abuse can carry well into adulthood and made the decision to be their advocate through her talents as a writer. With her childhood experiences and determined personality working together to form her career goals, Marie Crist became a student of criminology with the intention of becoming a forensic anthropologist. Her attention turned to her family, however, when she became a mother. The birth of her own children added another element, this time intensely personal, to her efforts to create a safe world for the most innocent members of our society. As her young family grew and her kids started school, Marie realized that her love of writing would be the ideal avenue for her desire to be an advocate for children while continuing to make her own home the primary focus. Through the pages of The Citizen Chronicles: Citizen Out, Marie Crist is able to use her first-hand knowledge of children who have been abused and the adults in our society who feel compelled to protect them to create a powerful statement about justice and our role as individuals in strengthening our communities. While we certainly are not all intended to operate within a secretive and complex organization to eliminate the evildoers in our society, Marie challenges us to think about the time and energy we give to our own families and to make a greater investment, in one way or another, to improving the lives of those around us. It is through her personal encounters with victims of abuse and her observations in diverse social compositions around our country that Marie is able to provide a strong testament about the role of each citizen.

My Thoughts
I enjoyed the many story lines going on at one time.  You have a group of people with their eye on predators.  These are not your ordinary people.  They belong to a company that has worked hard to identify these people and then permanently stop them from hurting another child.  From the very beginning of this book I was hooked.  We are in the mind of a predator who has been watching a group of children.  He goes through a long thought process to pick that one particular child.  He justifies everything in his mind.  You get a look at how sick he really is.  Just when you want to scream for the child to run, someone from the Company steps in and takes care of the predator, known as the
“mark”.  I can understand why people would belong to an organization like this.  I’m not sure I could justify their behavior or actions in real life. 

This author does a great job with the creation of her characters.  She also does a wonderful job of getting to your emotions.  This is a book that will keep you reading and trying to stay ahead f the action.  It is a book that grabs your emotions.  If you’ve ever known anyone, especially a child,  who was a victim of abuse, or went missing then your emotions are ratcheted ever higher the further you go into this book.   This is a book that everyone I know of would enjoy.  It has the ability to pull people in from all genres simply because of its topic.  If I were to give out stars I’d give this a 5 for the great writing, the believability, and the ability to give you closure  and hope for those news stories that haunt us.  I look forward to seeing what this author comes out with next.


You can see more about the book and author at her website: http://mariecrist.com/ 

Watch the trailer here

2 comments:

  1. I just wish there was much more than just reading it from the Citizen’s and their organization’s point of view. With this, you will discover things you might not have known before.

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  2. I had not looked at it that way but you are right.

    ReplyDelete