Say Goodbye

A young pregnant woman, Hayley, and her younger brother, Graham, are taken against their will by their mother to the Eden community. They’re desperate to escape before the birth and manage to get one message back to her boyfriend, Cameron.

DJ Belmont is the only Eden member allowed to leave on a regular basis, ostensibly for supplies. Meanwhile, Tom Hunter, an FBI agent who has worked for years to try to find the location of Eden, is distracted by trying to work out the nature of his friendship with Liza, his childhood friend.

When Liza spots a sniper on a roof overlooking an optician’s where she has taken Mercy and Abigail, both past escapees from Eden escapees, they realise that DJ Belmont is once again on the loose. He is evidently still trying to kill Mercy and her brother Gideon, who had escaped many years ago. All the Eden escapees had ended up at some stage in the care of the Sokolov family, and immediately the whole family is on high alert to try to track DJ down whilst keeping everyone safe.

Soon after this, Eden descends into turmoil when Pastor, its leader, is injured.  Despite this, DJ decides to continue his personal killing agenda. When Tom hears from Cameron, he ramps up the search for Eden and Liza puts herself in harm’s way to try to help him.

The story is written in an identical format to the previous books about Eden and the Sokolov family. As a result, much of it is predictable. Despite this, Say Goodbye is an addictive read. Somehow, the tension is maintained throughout the book. The only part that starts to pall is the developing relationship between Tom and Liza. Although its starting point is a little different from the others, it develops along similar lines to the major relationship in each of the previous books about the family. But the main story about DJ carries on through this with him leaving a trail of numerous murders.  

Karen Rose’s style of writing records the thoughts of each of the main characters as well as any dialogue and action. Descriptive detail is generally only included if it is relevant. Once again, this style is very effective in the main plot involving DJ, but the detail of the overly loving family sometimes becomes a little stifling.

Nevertheless, once started, the book held me right until the end. This may be due to the numerous small sub-plots within the main story. There is a great deal of violence, but all constrained within very normal settings, and described in a very matter-of-fact manner, so it’s quite frightening how quickly the reader might become immune to the gory details. Say Goodbye might take over your everyday life for a couple of days.