It was a very random thought of setting aside a book I have already started reading and replace that with this one, The Crush by Sandra Brown. I placed it on top of my laptop and began reading it later that night and finishing it within two straight days.
I've once read a Sandra Brown novel back in high school (I have 3 in my shelf) and she is just good at storytelling. From the first sentence, in an instant, she got me hooked. Page after page. Thrill after thrill. Suspense after suspense.
This one is no different. It started strong with a mysterious prologue. A gripping back-story which will make you turn the pages 'til you get to the end.
I love how Sandra Brown tells the story, letting you grasp the identity of the characters as you read along. I don't know, but there's really something with the way she uses words that makes it hard for a reader to put the book down.
This story basically revolves on the lives of three strong characters, each having an individual uniqueness to them. One is a surgeon, the other is a detective, and the other is a psycho-killer. I love how Sandra Brown lets the readers understand where each of them is coming from. You have to personally read the book to know this.
There are a whole lot of twists and turns in the story which makes it very interesting. There's this feeling of wanting to know what happens next, therefore you can never close it until the entire book is finished.
The gist goes like this: the lady surgeon helped acquit the psycho-killer, the psycho-killer develops a crush on her and kills her rival surgeon, the cops get the help of this problematic detective who has an unfinished business with the psycho-killer, they think the lady surgeon is the suspect, their lives got tangled until the detective falls in love with the lady surgeon, the psycho-killer gets mad and attempted to kill the detective, the lady surgeon saves his life, the psycho-killer gets arrested but got out of jail because of lack of evidence against him, their lives got tangled (worse) all over again, they can't come up with a reason to arrest the psycho-killer, and the climactic part escalates when they all plan a trap to catch the psycho-killer starting with a clichéd alliance between the lady surgeon and the detective.
That's basically how the story goes, with character identity and back-story elaborations in between. The mystery unfolds itself as you read through it. Sandra Brown would never leave you hanging and asking "why" because all the information you need are complete. Even the tiniest details were perfectly defined.
The best part would probably be the last part wherein they were able to finally catch the psycho-killer. That was so great, I never saw it coming! Awesome! But rather fast, it happened so quickly. I would've liked it better if the psycho-killer was tortured.
Nevertheless, I still loved the story so much and would definitely recommend to those who are looking for thrill and suspense. This mystery will surely make you want to be a detective, a surgeon, and a millionaire killer all at the same time.