Peek A Boo I See You: Emma Frost #5 Paperback – March 6, 2014

I love Willow Rose's novels - her writing style, the way she develops her characters and the characters themselves, and the way the plot unfolds with parallel stories converging in a twist. She tells a tale. I really enjoy reading her books, all of them, even this one. BUT the plots in this book and the book before this one, Cross My Heart and Hope to Die, have become so far-fetched and bizarre. They are just not believable. Yes, they are creepy and strange, but not in a Stephen King-like, "Oh, yes, of course there are vampires" kind of way. If that makes any sense. Her last book was a little over the edge of credulity. This book is beyond the horizon. I don't want to spoil anything, but this Emma, and several of the other characters, are idiots, and Emma is not an idiot. However, in Peek-a-Boo, Emma's interactions with the media are flawed, her assumptions about the perpetrators are illogical, especially given past cases, and her explanations about her son's condition lack common sense. And, for heaven's sake, get Victor a diagnosis. As someone familiar with the symptoms, Victor is clearly on the autism spectrum and not in a mild way. His primary diagnosis is certainly not ADHD, nor a Sensory Integration Disorder. But I digress. In any event, I don't know what to do. I really enjoy reading the books, but they are getting too incredible, in the true sense of the word, and inexplicable, to the extent that I am getting exasperated. I only gave it four stars, because, to date, they have been enjoyable reads. I suppose that I will try the next one and then make my decision. Is she continuing down the path to Jabberwocky and Wonderland or can she change course to saner passages? Time will tell.

I liked the book a lot. I had a hard time putting it down. I had to keep going to the next chapter.

First let me say that generally I liked this book, which is book #5 of a series by Willow Rose. This is the first book by this author that I've read. It was a generally well-written thriller with interesting characters and plotlines. The main characters are 3 dimensional, dialogue rings true, the pace moves along reasonably well. There is a present-day storyline about a serial killer who on the surface seems to be bringing attention to deficits in the Danish mental health system, and because not all his victims die (if the main character, Emma, can solve puzzles he emails her in a timely manner, they are rescued before dying) the media tags him The Caring Killer (a ridiculous oxymoron, right? but just the sort of attention-grabbing nickname that really could be used). Interspersed are chapters which are flashbacks that present the killer's past when the seeds for his apparent present-day motives for killing and kidnapping were planted.I don't know if the author has worked with mentally ill patients, or had a loved one who suffered with mental illness, but the inner thoughts of the more peripheral characters with mental illness really rang true, as best as I can judge (I'm a health professional, although not specifically in the mental health field). The inner conversations and strange rationalizations of people not taking their medications, or taking them improperly, or suffering a period of crisis seemed completely real and valid. Even the serial killer's twisted reasoning and thought processes felt real, and therefore scary to a rational thinker.The author also handled most of the personal relationships well; they came across realistically. Emma, a single mother, loves and clashes with her teenage daughter, and the two are often exasperated by each other. Emma is also at a loss to understand her mother's apparent "mid-life crisis", where she embarks on a journey of surgical self-improvement and Botox-fueled restoration of youth, but the deep love each has for the other is clearly seen.There were some major flaws in this book, however, and I had a hard time getting past them. First, I found much of the police procedures to be unbelievable. The detective, Morten who is also Emma's boyfriend, brings her to murder scenes and completely involves her, things I can't imagine ever happening in reality. The reason for this is that the serial killer addresses Emma directly with the first murder(s), then goes on to send her email riddles and eventually kidnaps her young mentally ill son. Nonetheless, I can't imagine a layperson being allowed to be so deeply involved in such complex crimes. Although some references are made to the other facets of the crime-solving process, the main focus of this book is not police procedurals.The other aspect I found particularly untrue about this book was also the core of the story line: the mental health services. Granted, the setting is a small island community, nonetheless throughout the whole story there is a complete lack of appropriate support for obviously troubled children from anyone: doctors, teachers, social workers or police, yet in reality all of these are actually able to provide help, situational guidance or at the very least direction to find these things. I especially found the social workers from the flashback chapters particularly appalling. People who train in and stay working in social services (which usually requires at least a Masters Degree in the U.S.) do so with the express purpose of helping people (with of course the small exception of people who perhaps are lazy, or who end up hating their jobs but are trapped). In no real world can I imagine a social worker, faced with desperate parents of an adolescent with serious and violent mental health and learning problems, coldly dismissing them as lazy or self-centered and merely wanting to dump their problem child on the taxpayers. Then her supervisor sits in on a meeting to dismiss the case and tacitly approves! I realize there are very real deficits in any child welfare or social service system, but nearly all the time this is due to lack of funds and resources, not to sociopathic social workers. And we find two such terrible people in this one small community!I kept finding myself wondering, why doesn't this school system have at least one guidance counselor who knows how to help this child? Don't these parents take their child to a pediatrician or family doctor for an annual checkup? Why hasn't the doctor intervened? Why does the town even have a social services department when its workers are so patently unfit? How can this local pharmacy, which has a computer system, continue to fill prescriptions for psychotropic meds over and over and over again for the same patient? Why in heaven's name does a police officer threaten to shoot a small child (who has some sort of mental illness) on whom someone (the killer) has attached a bomb vest just because the child acts (appropriately) frightened? How did he become a policeman and be given a weapon, with no training in dealing with people of various ages and backgrounds reacting to overly stressful situations? These are a few of the many distracting questions I had that kept me from completely immersing myself into the book.My other complaint is the story climax. With very, very little buildup, the story is summed up and explained, only to immediately segue into an explosion of multiple violent acts, all in the space of a few paragraphs. It feels like the author has run out of steam, gotten tired of the story and just wants the whole business over and done so she can go start a new project but feels she needs to throw a few more plot devices into the mix. There is a brief epilogue, which adds a little bit more, but the very end is left hanging with an invitation to read the next book in the series in order to find out what happens next. This is an annoying affection of some series writers that I find annoying and off-putting and it doesn't entice me to continue reading a series, mainly because I dislike feeling tricked into doing so. Not everyone dislikes this writing style, but be aware that it is used here. Since this is the only book I've read by this author, I don't know if this is her routine.

I think the Emma Frost series is really good. I have come to really like the main characters. I love the suspenseful nature of the books

I like mysteries that keep you guessing right up to the end. Ms. Rose did that in this book. I'll have to go back and read the first four books now to find out how Emma Frost began.

I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a.good psychological thriller. At first I had No idea how the stories intertwined, but it all.came together in the end to make for an awesome story!

The killer was very hard to guess. The story line goes back and forth which is difficult to follow sometimes but that is how the story is put together. It is a great book full of suspense.

A good read that puts a sobering emphasis on mental illness. Sad that so many people cannot get appropriate help. 3 stars for the unbelievable and unrealistic police. I was rolling my eyes at some of the ridiculousness.

Brilliant book. Really enjoyed it, one of those I didn't want to put down to do something needless like make a meal. The storyline was original: it made me realise how awful it must be for parents of a child with problems like those described. The writing was excellent my only very slight niggle being the rather careful way - and to me, often not grammatical - sentences were constructed. It felt like a Danish person, with brilliant English, translating which isn't really that much of a surprise! Wish I could read it again. Wish I wasn't such a cheapskate that I'm reluctant to pay for one of the other in the series.

Enjoyed all the twists and turns .Emma Frost is aVery talented author and l shall look forward to reading her next book.

Although I did make it to the end that more about hoping for improvements than enjoying the story. Maybe something gets lost in the translation, but the conversations between the characters are just not natural, not in any I would believe these people would behave given the situation they are in. The boyfriend, Mortem a police officer, seemed to be the most useless officer being told how to do his job by Emma! All the characters were flat and one dimensional so it was hard to care about any one. Won't be bothering with the next books.

I simply can't get enough of these books. Am looking forward to the next one. Please keep writing these sort of books

Definitely found a new favourite author this is my third Willow Rose book can't get enough .All three have been entirely different and maybe one could not get a next good read wrong another fabulous shelter smelter ride of a read straight in you get the story you feel the characters never saw the baddie in this one or the ending excellent.Keep writing these great all night reads awesome.A ten out of ten every time.