A tour de force of suspense, Shock Wave is the tense tale of a female reporter who, on assignment in a midwestern university town, finds she has stepped into an environment fused for violence After two decades of covering riots, assassinations, and urban decay, Kate Osborn comes to Venice, Illinois, to profile Steve Higgins, an old-school Chicago-style politician. Although Higgins hews to tradition, the problems in Venice are thoroughly modern. Student unrest roils beneath the quiet surface of the university, kept in check only by the well-armed campus police, and in town, the white merchants and black coal miners are preparing to go to war. It takes all of Higgins's strength to keep the town in check-but two shocking murders tip the balance. Kate came to interview a politician, but she is about to get a firsthand look at a war zone right in the middle of America's heartland.
"Mrs. Davis is one of the admired writers of American mystery fiction, and Shock Wave is up to her best. She has a cultured style, handles dialogue with a sure ear, and understands people better than most of her colleagues. . . . She has few equals in setting up a standard type of puzzle, complete with misdirection and surprises. Her special strength lies in transcending the puzzle, using it as a
The New York Times Book Review
"Davis is one of the truly distinguished writers in the medium; what may be more important, she is one of the few who can build suspense to a sonic peak."
Dorothy B. Hughes, Los Angeles Times
"[Davis has] an awareness of how easy it is for ordinary people to do nasty or wicked deeds . . . [and] a richness to her understanding of the human condition that is missing from most contemporary crime fiction."
