Allreaders.com

Raise the Dead Book Summary and Study Guide

Detailed plot synopsis reviews of Raise the Dead


For the first five installments of Jane Rubino's Cat Austen/Victor Cardenas series, we have been lead to believe that Cat's policeman-husband had been the victim of a random shooting. In the opening chapter of "Raise the Dead" we flashback to the sinister meeting to plot the killing of Christopher Austen.
Click here to see the rest of this review...


The present-day story begins on a holiday weekend at the Jersey Shore. Cat Austen is getting ready for the wedding of her brother to her best friend, when the violent death of a rival reporter seems to have a creepy connection to a series of anonymous phone calls Cat has received and to the fertility clinic where Cat and her husband had been patients. While Victor and his major crimes team track the violent man who Cat caught ransacking the reporter's house, Cat traces the phone calls to the mysterious disappearance of a clinic office worker and to the business manager who had been married to Raymond Stites, the killer of Cat's husband.
The review of this Book prepared by B. Linton






Llumina, 2004, 18.95, 237 pp.
ISBN: 1595263411

Ray Stites has six weeks to live if he fails to receive treatment; he has fourteen if he does, but he owes $50K and heath care is very expensive. He worries about how his beloved Kathleen will pay the bills he leaves behind when he receives a unique offer. If he kills three people, his debts will be paid and Kathleen will receive money to live off of. He agrees to kill a woman, a cop and himself.

Three years later in the Delaware Valley, widow reporter Cat Austen raises her two children alone. Cat overhears her lover, Cape May County Homicide Investigator Victor Cardenas, tell an associate that he loves her, wants to marry her, but must tell her the truth about her late husband Chris, a murdered cop. Stunned Cat begins making inquiries after confronting Victor who hides behind national security. She finds a tie to Kathleen Stites and the State of Art Fertility Clinic where she got pregnant, but the link to murdering Chris remains vague; Still someone wants her to back off from learning why her husband was killed. The audience learns along with Cat why Chris was murdered and whether her new love Victor was an instrument in her late husband's death.

Harriet Klausner

The review of this Book prepared by Harriet Klausner



Chapter Analysis of Raise the Dead

Click on a plot link to find similar books!

Plot & Themes

Composition of Book descript. of violence and chases 10%Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives 40%Feelings, relationships, character bio/development 40%How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) 10% Tone of story    -   suspenseful (sophisticated fear) How difficult to spot villain?    -   Very difficult--no foreshadowing/clues Time/era of story:    -   2000+ (Present) What % of story relates directly to the mystery, not the subplot?    -   70% Special suspect?    -   lover Misc. Murder Plotlets    -   Proving innocence of very obvious suspect Kind of investigator    -   skilled citizen investigator Kid or adult book?    -   Adult or Young Adult Book Any non-mystery subplot?    -   feelings towards lover Crime Thriller    -   Yes Murder Mystery (killer unknown)    -   Yes

Main Character

Gender    -   Male    -   Female Profession/status:    -   journalist    -   writer Age:    -   20's-30's Ethnicity/Race    -   White/American

Setting

United States    -   Yes The US:    -   Mid-Atlantic states Small town?    -   Yes Small town people:    -   sinister, like an X-Files Gomer Pyle Misc setting    -   scientific labs

Writing Style

Accounts of torture and death?    -   generic/vague references to death/punishment    -   moderately detailed references to deaths Amount of dialog    -   significantly more dialog than descript

Books with storylines, themes & endings like Raise the Dead

Jane Rubino Books Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s).
2 Ways to Search!
Or



Our Chief Librarian