Sinners and Saints [Hardcover]

Chastity Byrne's life is going as she wants: she's a forensic nurse, got a new puppy, everything in order. Then, her ER doc mentions "Chaos Theory" and only minutes later, everything goes rapidly downhill.

She gets a desperate call from a brother in law she never knew even existed. Her sister, Faith, who'd abandoned her more than 10 years earlier at 16 is missing. Her 'new' brother in law, Dr. Max Stanton, is desperate to find his wife.

Chastity is convinced to go to New Orleans to seek out a sister she's not even sure she wants to find. She discovers pretty quickly that everyone who's given Faith any help is being killed off. Worse, there's a hurricane coming and there's only one thing that Chastity fears more than that...

Her father---who coincidentally is alive, well, and out of jail.

"Sinners and Saints" is a very well-written thriller that sinks its hooks into you and doesn't let go. Chastity Bryne is one of the strongest heroines I've ever read--despite her fears and wish not to go on. This is my first Dreyer novel and I can assure you--will not be my last.

Just when forensic nurse Chastity O'Connor believes she has her life on track, a call from New Orleans turns her world upside down. The brother-in-law she never knew she had calls to tell her that her sister Faith is missing. Chastity hasn't seen her sister or her mother in a decade ever since they abandoned her when she was sixteen forcing her to live on the streets.

Even though she knows her sister blames her for sending their father to jail, Chastity goes to New Orleans to help in the search for her sibling who she believes disappeared when her mother died in order to escape reality. Three women associated with Faith and the fertility clinic where she was donating her eggs have been murdered all by the same killer. Chastity now fears that Faith ran because she was afraid for her life. Desperate to find her sister, she falls into a murderer's trap but with the assistance of a sexy cab driver, she might escape in time to save her sister.

The heroine is one of the most courageous characters to ever grace the pages of a novel. Despite the abuse she suffered as a child and overcoming traumatic fears, she makes the effort to save the sister who discarded her and never tried to make contact with her. The villain is hidden in plain sight and will come as quite a shock to the readers who never would have guessed the identity. Eileen Dreyer writes a brilliant crime thriller that starts off fast and never slows down until the last page is turned while also filled with excellent characterizations, realistic action scenes and terrific pacing.

Harriet Klausner

The main action in Eileen Dreyer's new thriller, "Sinners and Saints," is set in New Orleans on the eve of a hurricane. The lead character, forensic nurse Chastity Byrnes, is an emotional wreck because of past traumas that she hints at but does not spell out until later in the book. She has been seeing a therapist for a long time, takes antianxiety medication, and is terrified of drowning. However, she valiantly picks herself up from her relatively safe haven in St. Louis and answers a call for help from her brother-in-law, surgeon Max Stanton. It seems that Faith Stanton, Chastity's sister and Max's wife, has gone missing and Max asks Chastity to help find her. Chastity has been out of touch with Faith for years, but she decides that it is her duty to assist Max in any way that she can.

Max gives Chastity carte blanche to search his house and papers in an effort to garner clues about Faith's whereabouts. While in New Orleans, Chastity takes advantage of the hospitality of a fellow nurse named Kareena Boudreaux, a saucy and sexy Cajun woman with a colorful way of speaking. To get around New Orleans, Chastity hires James Guidry, a physically and emotionally scarred ex-fireman; he proves to be a handy man to have around in a crisis. Chastity contacts everyone who knew Faith and she discovers that her sister had been visiting a fertility clinic. Could the clinic somehow be connected to Faith's disappearance? Much to Chastity's chagrin, some of the people whom she interviews turn up dead, and she feels guilty for having put them in danger. Unfortunately, the New Orleans police are not much help. As the hurricane nears and threatens to flood the city, Chastity is tempted to hop on the next plane back to St. Louis before she is either swept away by the tides or murdered by a sadistic killer.

Eileen Dreyer captures the ambiance of New Orleans perfectly. She nails the "anything goes" party atmosphere, the obsession with death and cemeteries, and the feeling of imminent danger that goes with living in a place that lies below sea level. Unfortunately, this is a very talky book with dialogue that is sometimes stilted and silly (I get irritated every time Chastity calls James "Fireman" and he calls her "Nurse,") but the patois spoken by certain characters such as a psychic named Tante Edie is colorful and intriguing.

"Sinners and Saints" is a pedestrian mystery with a bunch of red herrings that do not lead anywhere. The novel drags towards the conclusion; it could easily have been trimmed by at least fifty pages with no loss of coherence. However, there are some worthwhile elements that redeem the novel somewhat. Chastity is an appealing heroine, with her mixture of fear and spunk, and it is entertaining to watch her relationship with James heat up. We grow to care about her, and we root for her to catch the murderer and overcome her fears. By far, the best reason to read "Sinners and Saints" is that it brings New Orleans to life at a time when this beautiful, historic, and unique city is struggling mightily to get back on its feet.