Killing Time

by Elise Title

Book Overview

Doing Time Thirty-one-year-old Natalie Price has a tough job as a superintendent in the Massachusetts prison system. She rules over inmates' lives just before they get released. Natalie gets the biggest challenge of her career when her good friend Maggie Austin, a college professor who allowed inmates to take her classes, is brutally murdered. Grief and guilt haunt Natalie, for she persuaded Maggie to offer the course, and recommended she teach Dean...

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312989733
• ISBN13: 9780312989736
• Release Date: July 2003
• Publisher: Minotaur Books
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.4" x 6.9"

Customer Reviews

Great read! Classic mystery with a unique sleuth.

Excellent mystery embedded in an unusual inside look at an otherwise closed setting (the prison prerelease world). Title is an expert in this world, having worked as a prison therapist, so the issues, politicas, & characters are dead on. Makes you think about whether we have crated social biases about ex-cons & soon-to-be ex-cons that make it hard for them to catch a break -- or do we? Kinda like a good episode of 'Homicide' ot 'Law & Order.' It's great that Nat (the main charcter) is in this tough prison job, but is sometimes so clueless, clutsy, & headstrong that she gets in her own way. Not like the superhero stuff you see sometimes when the amateur sleuth, presented with a mystery to solve, suddenly channels Sherlock Holmes! Want to know more about Nat's background -- how did she get to her prison job, what else makes her tick, etc. But Title does a good job of giving us a peek into Nat's interior universe -- maybe the friendly cop on the beat, investigator Leo, will be able to draw it out of her with the promise of more home cooked Italian meals... Can't wait to see what Nat & Leo tussle over in the next book...

start of an innovative and intriguing series

As the superintendent of Horizon House, a pre-release facility for felons, Natasha Price is proud of her accomplishments and the success of the program. Still she's a little uneasy that her best friend Maggie Austin is socially involved with one of her clients, Dean Thomas Walsh who served eight years behind bars for rape. When a police officer answers the phone and tells Nat that Maggie is dead, she immediately thinks of Dean.She is afraid that the spotlight on Dean will derail her career and that fear increase when Dean escapes from Horizon House. Nat dives head first into the investigation, putting herself in jeopardy when the killer feels she's getting too close to uncovering his identity.This is the start of an innovative and intriguing series. The workings of Horizon House and its goal of slowly acclimatizing the criminal back into society is fascinating and definitely keeps the interests of society, the individual, and the reader as its vision. Readers will like the protagonist, a woman committed to making society into a better place.Harriet Klausner