I have never read a book by Iris Johansen, and, after finishing this story, I will probably never bother to read one again. I found the story lacking and difficult to engage with. The characters were one dimensional and nothing happened with the plot for more than half the book. At page 176 out of 362 I found myself still waiting for the story to start.

I did not realize I was jumping into the middle of the series, which may be why I was not impressed with the book. ( )

I haven’t read all the Eve Duncan books but this one was sitting on my shelf for years and suddenly just called out to me to be read. Books do that sometimes. I loved the character of Kelly Winters introduced in this book and I really hope we see more of her, Catherine Ling and Luke. ( )

A CIA agent's two-year-old child was stolen in the night as a brutal act of vengeance. Now, eight years later, this torment is something Catherine Ling awakens to every day. Her friends, family, and colleagues tell her to let go, move on, accept that her son is never coming back. But she can't. Catherine needs to find someone as driven and obsessed as she is to help her— and that person is Eve Duncan. She knows that Eve shares her nightmare, since closure is also something that eludes Eve after the disappearance of her daughter Bonnie. Now, Eve must take her talents as a forensic sculptor to another level, using age progression as a way to unite Catherine with her child. As Eve gets drawn deeper into Catherine's horror, she must face looming demons of her own.
Bonnie's killer is still out there. And a new killer is taunting Eve and Catherine at every turn. Is Catherine's son alive, or not? These two women endure the worst fear any mother can imagine in Iris Johansen's thrill ride, a gut-wrenching journey into the darkest places of the soul, in Chasing the Night.

I really liked the plot, it was interesting and contained many of the CSI type elements I look for. However, there are many characters who were only half developed. I do not know if they are in her other novels, SO, I may revise this review as I read more from Johansen. I just found out that this is a the latest in a series, though I cannot tell from the book where in the timeline it falls. SERIOUS ERROR! I can already tell that Johansen favors a strong heroine or in this case, a few strong heroines. Each character had a rich, serious back story that we only get glimpses of, so I wanted more, More, MORE. There were possible conflicts that never quite reached the boilover point and the dialogue doesn't always reflect the inner struggles of the characters. I would favor a more human vulnerability from time to time over the struggle to always be strong and driven. Great cliffhanger ending that makes me think I missed some MAJOR character development in other works. I did read Silent Thunder by this author and it was unconnected to this story. I will definitely read more. It is clear that each character from this book could have their own spin-off series, so now I have to go and research who is in which book in which order. It would have been nice if this was included IN the book as a guide.
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I am an avid Iris Johansen fan of any of her books except the Eve Duncan ones. I've read two of them hopeing that they would become as good as her stand alone books or the ones she writes with her son, Roy. But this characters just doesn't change. I think Johansen confuses a strong woman with a headstrong one. Refusing to listen to the advice of other, more knowledgeable, characters just to prove her independence and feminine strengths, only proves the main character is stubborn and foolish, not a strong, smart, capable person worthy of admiration that Johansen makes her out to be. I quickly got to the point that I was tired of hearing about her daughter, Bonnie. The idea of facial reconstruction is such a fasinating subject that I was very disappointed that Eve Duncan is such a stuid, head strong character. ( )