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Hailey Dean #1
The Eleventh Victim
"Seconds passed; minutes. She could hear movement now in the waiting room she had just left...it was the metal magazine rack she was sure, that crashed to the tile floor. Then quiet. She strained to hear in the darkness. Nothing more, and then... The air moved in the room and she knew. He was here."
As a young psychology student, Hailey Dean's world explodes when Will, her fiancé, is murdered just weeks before their wedding. Reeling, she fights back the only way she knows how: In court, prosecuting violent crime...putting away the bad guys one rapist, doper, and killer at a time. But dedicating her life to justice takes a toll after years of courtroom battles and the endless tide of victims calling out from crime scene photos and autopsy tables. Just as she grows truly weary, a serial killer unlike any other she's encountered begins to stalk the city of Atlanta, targeting young prostitutes, each horrific murder bearing his own unique mark. This courtroom battle will be her last.
Hailey heads for Manhattan to pick up the pieces of the life she had before Will's murder, training as a therapist. In a vibrant new world, she finally leaves her ghosts behind. But then her own clients are brutally murdered one by one by a copycat using the same M.O. as the Atlanta killer she hunted down years before. As the body count rises across Manhattan, Hailey is forced to match wits not only against a killer, but the famed NYPD.
Unless she returns to her former life and solves the case, still more innocent people will die at the hands of a killer who plans to get her, before she can get him!
As a young psychology student, Hailey Dean's world explodes when Will, her fiancé, is murdered just weeks before their wedding. Reeling, she fights back the only way she knows how: In court, prosecuting violent crime...putting away the bad guys one rapist, doper, and killer at a time. But dedicating her life to justice takes a toll after years of courtroom battles and the endless tide of victims calling out from crime scene photos and autopsy tables. Just as she grows truly weary, a serial killer unlike any other she's encountered begins to stalk the city of Atlanta, targeting young prostitutes, each horrific murder bearing his own unique mark. This courtroom battle will be her last.
Hailey heads for Manhattan to pick up the pieces of the life she had before Will's murder, training as a therapist. In a vibrant new world, she finally leaves her ghosts behind. But then her own clients are brutally murdered one by one by a copycat using the same M.O. as the Atlanta killer she hunted down years before. As the body count rises across Manhattan, Hailey is forced to match wits not only against a killer, but the famed NYPD.
Unless she returns to her former life and solves the case, still more innocent people will die at the hands of a killer who plans to get her, before she can get him!
353 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 2008
244 people are currently reading
3366 people want to read
About the author
Nancy Grace
21 books233 followersNancy Grace is an American legal commentator and former prosecutor. She frequently discusses issues from what she describes as a "victims' rights" standpoint. She was the host of Nancy Grace from 2005 to 2016 on HLN, and she was the host of Court TV's Closing Arguments from 1996–2007.
Librarian’s note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Librarian’s note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 266 reviews
February 6, 2010
I guess a 2.5 rating would work. I felt as if I was reading 3 short stories that were somehow turned into a novel. The whole storyline taking place in the islands of Georgia had NOTHING to do with the main plot which is a convicted murderer has his sentence overturn and plots his revenge. Oh how did that happen you ask, well the second story is a judge who gave away his vote for a chance to be governor. For a moment that story fit with the plot, but then we travel the road of corrupt politicans. If these stories tie into the main plot can someone explain how? As for the main story, if it was the focal point for the whole book, I would give it a 4. I don't believe Hailey wouldn't of been notifed by the courts of this prisoner's release, someone from her hometown would of told her or it would of been mention in the news. Aside from that, having her be stalked by the killer, was engaging especially at the end when it wasn't exactly who I thought it was. It had a couple funny moments too.
August 21, 2009
My Amazon Vine review...
"The Eleventh Victim" is a complex murder mystery about a woman who loses her fiance in a senseless crime and then embarks on a career as a prosecutor. The author, Nancy Grace, was herself a prosecutor in Atlanta GA and she brings her knowledge of the (in)justice system and writes with compelling authority about the twists and turns 'justice' can take.
Hailey Dean's finace was violently murdered shortly before their wedding during a mugging, for a whopping total of $35. The crime propels the young college graduate into a depression that lifts only when she decides to go after the criminals who perpetrate such crimes. She becomes a prosecutor who fights for the victims left behind and her record is nothing short of stellar, 100 wins, no losses. She doesn't DO 'deals'. Instead, she and her investigator sidekick put together strong evidence that results in convictions. Her last case as a prosecutor involved the conviction of a serial killer for the murders of eleven women. When the verdict is read, the killer leaps toward Hailey in the courtroom and is only tackled AFTER she feels his hands close around her neck. That's the moment when Hailey knows she's done. Now it's two years later and Hailey has moved to New York and is a practicing therapist. But when two of her patients are murdered and Hailey's DNA is found at the scenes, her life takes a violent and terrifying turn. Now SHE's the one on the defensive and who, exactly, is after her, isn't clear.
This is author Nancy Grace's first foray into the world of mystery/thriller/fiction and I sometimes got lost in the stories of 'sidebar' characters which include a rich man trying to circumvent environmental protections, a good-ole-boy crooked judge, a friend's new love affair, and a very rich, but very pissed, defense attorney. All these 'other' stories do tie in to the main story, but for me, they mostly detracted from the story at the heart of the book...Hailey's story.
I was left with many questions regarding Hailey's future and also that of a 'wrongly' paroled serial killer! For me at least, I need closure in a book. But the serial killer just fades out and Hailey decides to return to Georgia...to do what I have no idea. That's not a real ending for me.
The plot was clever and even though I quickly figured out the 'bad guy' (other than the serial killer), there were still plenty of red herrings. I did find the flow of the story choppy as it jumped from the side character's stories to Hailey's story regularly. Sometimes it was hard to keep track of who was doing what! Ms. Grace's disgust with 'special interest' politics comes through loud and clear and her portrayal of bargaining and dealing to cater to political aspirations was enough to make me believe some of those bad lawyer jokes...
In the end I did finish "The Eleventh Victim" and I did find it interesting. I must admit that I would be wary of reading Nancy Grace's next novel without getting a better idea of its pace and flow and how she pieced the story together. But I consider an author's first novel a kind of learning experience for both author and reader and I like to think we both get better with age and experience.
"The Eleventh Victim" is a complex murder mystery about a woman who loses her fiance in a senseless crime and then embarks on a career as a prosecutor. The author, Nancy Grace, was herself a prosecutor in Atlanta GA and she brings her knowledge of the (in)justice system and writes with compelling authority about the twists and turns 'justice' can take.
Hailey Dean's finace was violently murdered shortly before their wedding during a mugging, for a whopping total of $35. The crime propels the young college graduate into a depression that lifts only when she decides to go after the criminals who perpetrate such crimes. She becomes a prosecutor who fights for the victims left behind and her record is nothing short of stellar, 100 wins, no losses. She doesn't DO 'deals'. Instead, she and her investigator sidekick put together strong evidence that results in convictions. Her last case as a prosecutor involved the conviction of a serial killer for the murders of eleven women. When the verdict is read, the killer leaps toward Hailey in the courtroom and is only tackled AFTER she feels his hands close around her neck. That's the moment when Hailey knows she's done. Now it's two years later and Hailey has moved to New York and is a practicing therapist. But when two of her patients are murdered and Hailey's DNA is found at the scenes, her life takes a violent and terrifying turn. Now SHE's the one on the defensive and who, exactly, is after her, isn't clear.
This is author Nancy Grace's first foray into the world of mystery/thriller/fiction and I sometimes got lost in the stories of 'sidebar' characters which include a rich man trying to circumvent environmental protections, a good-ole-boy crooked judge, a friend's new love affair, and a very rich, but very pissed, defense attorney. All these 'other' stories do tie in to the main story, but for me, they mostly detracted from the story at the heart of the book...Hailey's story.
I was left with many questions regarding Hailey's future and also that of a 'wrongly' paroled serial killer! For me at least, I need closure in a book. But the serial killer just fades out and Hailey decides to return to Georgia...to do what I have no idea. That's not a real ending for me.
The plot was clever and even though I quickly figured out the 'bad guy' (other than the serial killer), there were still plenty of red herrings. I did find the flow of the story choppy as it jumped from the side character's stories to Hailey's story regularly. Sometimes it was hard to keep track of who was doing what! Ms. Grace's disgust with 'special interest' politics comes through loud and clear and her portrayal of bargaining and dealing to cater to political aspirations was enough to make me believe some of those bad lawyer jokes...
In the end I did finish "The Eleventh Victim" and I did find it interesting. I must admit that I would be wary of reading Nancy Grace's next novel without getting a better idea of its pace and flow and how she pieced the story together. But I consider an author's first novel a kind of learning experience for both author and reader and I like to think we both get better with age and experience.
June 9, 2010
3.0 out of 5 stars Ho hum...skip it, you've already read one just like it., August 9, 2009
This review is from: The Eleventh Victim (Hardcover)
This is formulaic fiction at best, and convoluted storytelling at worst. The best way to sum up The Eleventh Victim is to say that there is nothing new and fresh here -- everything in the book has been written and read by anyone who likes thrillers. I found myself just plodding along, eager to be finished so I could move on to something more interesting.
The plot is typical -- a former beautiful and athletic female prosecutor of serial killers is burnt out and has fled Georgia for NY and instead of being a lawyer, she's now a psychologist. Then the conflict: uh oh, a former conviction she obtained has been overturned and now the bad guy is out. And guess who he wants to kill next? The ex attorney Hailey Dean, however, through some unbelievable inability to stay informed, doesn't realize that he has been released from death row due to a shift in votes on the appellate level. We are then treated to a tabloid-like look into the sleazy politics involving that judge's ambitions to be Georgia's governor. This leads to yet another side story that did nothing but annoy me. The whole digression into the plight of construction of tourist high rise condominiums on St. Simons Island in Georgia was completely unnecessary to the main narrative and I found it distracting and uninteresting. The author skips all around in the book from one little subplot to the next and back again. Most of it irrelevant to the main story line.
The climax of the book is totally predictable and you will find yourself skimming the last several chapters just to finally reach an unsatisfying conclusion.
My recommendation -- Skip it. As I said, you've already read this story.
This review is from: The Eleventh Victim (Hardcover)
This is formulaic fiction at best, and convoluted storytelling at worst. The best way to sum up The Eleventh Victim is to say that there is nothing new and fresh here -- everything in the book has been written and read by anyone who likes thrillers. I found myself just plodding along, eager to be finished so I could move on to something more interesting.
The plot is typical -- a former beautiful and athletic female prosecutor of serial killers is burnt out and has fled Georgia for NY and instead of being a lawyer, she's now a psychologist. Then the conflict: uh oh, a former conviction she obtained has been overturned and now the bad guy is out. And guess who he wants to kill next? The ex attorney Hailey Dean, however, through some unbelievable inability to stay informed, doesn't realize that he has been released from death row due to a shift in votes on the appellate level. We are then treated to a tabloid-like look into the sleazy politics involving that judge's ambitions to be Georgia's governor. This leads to yet another side story that did nothing but annoy me. The whole digression into the plight of construction of tourist high rise condominiums on St. Simons Island in Georgia was completely unnecessary to the main narrative and I found it distracting and uninteresting. The author skips all around in the book from one little subplot to the next and back again. Most of it irrelevant to the main story line.
The climax of the book is totally predictable and you will find yourself skimming the last several chapters just to finally reach an unsatisfying conclusion.
My recommendation -- Skip it. As I said, you've already read this story.
November 10, 2020
I've seen Nancy Grace here and there on TV and I don't care much for her. Now I can say the same about her as an author. The subplot was so disjointed from the main story, it was like reading a different book. Every time one or the other became interesting, it switched back and made it difficult to really care about either. Too bad because with more effort, this could have been 2 decent books. It barely rates 3-stars but I'm giving credit for it being her first novel.
October 14, 2021
Not bad but not my style
September 11, 2009
'The Eleventh Victim' by Nancy Grace kept me turning pages to see what was gonna happen next. The characterization was skillfully mastered here, with each character coming through vividly and clearly having his/her own individual voice. The plot of this Thriller/Suspense novel was perfectly paced, unfolding and twisting in just the right spots. And there will only be a handful of people who will guess how this ends.
Nancy Grace's career and personal experiences must have helped her pen this intriguing novel, full of life and grit and cold hard reality. While some parts squeezed my heart while others made me bust a gut laughing, providing just enough humor to balance out the grit. When I finished reading it, I thought "But what happened with...", then I realized Miss Nancy had left room for sequel, one which I would quickly snatch off the shelves.
Nancy Grace's career and personal experiences must have helped her pen this intriguing novel, full of life and grit and cold hard reality. While some parts squeezed my heart while others made me bust a gut laughing, providing just enough humor to balance out the grit. When I finished reading it, I thought "But what happened with...", then I realized Miss Nancy had left room for sequel, one which I would quickly snatch off the shelves.
September 1, 2023
2.5 stars
Didn't flow well. I may give the next book a try, but not in a rush to do so
Didn't flow well. I may give the next book a try, but not in a rush to do so
April 4, 2010
Hailey Dean’s interest in psychology falters when her fiancée is murdered weeks before their wedding. From that point, Hailey, committed to seeking justice, obtains her law degree. As an assistant district attorney Atlanta, she becomes known for her success record and vigilance in seeing criminals fully prosecuted. But her final case, that of a serial killer who murders prostitutes, takes its toll. After the killer is sentenced to death, Hailey packs up her belongings and heads to New York City, where she begins her psychology practice in hopes of leaving her past behind. But two years later, two of her patients are murdered, similar to those in Atlanta, and the evidence points to Hailey, who must find the killer before she herself ends up on death row.
Grace’s fiction debut seems to be loosely based on herself, which is interesting, but at times reads like a first novel with awkward dialogue, overuse of exclamation points, and repetitions of the same words. Confusing to this reviewer are the two separate plots which are not related to one another and the way the author switches back and forth between the two. Each is viable enough to stand alone without sharing space in the same book. Hailey Dean is a very likable character and the mystery regarding her portion of the book intriguing, although inconsistencies (such as the fact that the serial killer’s conviction is reversed and no one seems to know about it) are distracting. Now that Dean has established herself as a mystery writer, it will be interesting to see what’s next.
Grace’s fiction debut seems to be loosely based on herself, which is interesting, but at times reads like a first novel with awkward dialogue, overuse of exclamation points, and repetitions of the same words. Confusing to this reviewer are the two separate plots which are not related to one another and the way the author switches back and forth between the two. Each is viable enough to stand alone without sharing space in the same book. Hailey Dean is a very likable character and the mystery regarding her portion of the book intriguing, although inconsistencies (such as the fact that the serial killer’s conviction is reversed and no one seems to know about it) are distracting. Now that Dean has established herself as a mystery writer, it will be interesting to see what’s next.
November 18, 2009
I was very disappointed in this book. Ending was predictable and wrapped up all in a matter of pages.
September 25, 2009
it was okay.. guess i expected more from nancy grace
August 19, 2019
Not terrible but nothing that I would read again. There was time jumps that would take me a bit to catch up on between chapters and I understand how the two story lines ran together but I think the book would of been better without the politic side and just focused on Hailey and the killings.
July 12, 2017
I didn't know that Nancy Grace wrote fiction. The book was pretty good
June 29, 2021
I normally don't like watching Nancy Grace on TV since I feel she is too dramatic and over the top. So I began this book with a feeling of a continuation of her unnecessary drama. I was surprised with her writing and really enjoyed this mystery. It had a very good surprise ending, and left it open for an interesting follow-up book.
February 19, 2022
Kept me turning pages. Enjoyed the journey and liked the way all the story unfolded and connected to other underhanded events. Glad not to discover the villain until the end.
November 10, 2009
The Eleventh Victim is a fairly standard murder mystery, something of a pot boiler, if truth be told. Weirdly enough, it's quite readable, even suspenseful at times. However, it's marred by cartoonish, stereotypical characters and a sometimes hard to follow plot line dotted with totally improbable events. Among the more unbelievable: a Georgia judge who really believes he has more than a snowball's chance in hell to be elected Governor after casting the deciding vote to overturn the death penalty and set free a man convicted of 11 brutal murders. Equally unbelievable is that the protagonist, currently living in New York (the media capital of the United States, if not the world) and working as a psychologist 10 years after having obtained the killer's conviction, wouldn't hear either of the reversal of the conviction or the release of the killer. And that's not to mention the wildly improbable police interview in which the Grace-like heroine bests the dumb police detective and the silly motive for the murders for which the heroine is framed and arrested.
Murder mysteries are not documentaries or works of non-fiction, and their plots frequently take improbable and illogical turns. But the plot of The Eleventh Victim is hard to believe, even in that context.
Nonetheless, the book is interesting throughout, being suspenseful and comical (sometimes intentionally, I think) by turns. It's not great literature, that's for sure, but it's an entertaining, if light, read, despite its dark subject matter. Should Nancy stick to her TV show and drop writing? That's a subject for some deliberation and I'd say the jury is still out.
Murder mysteries are not documentaries or works of non-fiction, and their plots frequently take improbable and illogical turns. But the plot of The Eleventh Victim is hard to believe, even in that context.
Nonetheless, the book is interesting throughout, being suspenseful and comical (sometimes intentionally, I think) by turns. It's not great literature, that's for sure, but it's an entertaining, if light, read, despite its dark subject matter. Should Nancy stick to her TV show and drop writing? That's a subject for some deliberation and I'd say the jury is still out.
January 29, 2015
This was an interesting mystery story. Hailey Dean studies to begin her career as a psychologist, until her fiancee is murdered. She changes career plans, goes to law school and becomes a no-nonsense tough prosecutor in Atlanta. After a high profile serial murder case, she quits her job, moves to New York and starts a psychology practice. Then everything changes as someone frames her for two murders and tries to kill her as well. The police think she is a murderer so they are no help to her. She very smartly figures out who is after her and why. While this is the main topic, it is interrupted with multiple other story lines happening simultaneously. At the end, you can see the link, but it can get confusing at times. I don't think the other stories meshed in well with the whole plot. But, Hailey is a likeable character and she still has an enemy lurking around. I'll have to see how that is resolved in the next book.
July 22, 2022
The Eleventh Victim by Nancy Grace is the first book in the Hailey Dean Mystery series. Following the successful prosecution of a serial killer, Hailey Dean leaves her job as a prosecuting atorney to become a psychologist in Manhattan only to find that 2 years later her clients start being murdered in the manner of her last case. This is another book that I picked up after having seen the television series. While I enjoyed the book and the mystery, I felt that you could tell that it was written by an inexperienced author. There is a lot of back story and the book felt rather disjointed, flitting back and forth between several storylines and although they came together at the end, there seemed to be quite a few unanswered questions. I did like getting to know Hailey and her background and can see how she came to be the person she is. The mystery is interesting and I enjoyed it overall.
December 16, 2013
I loved this book. I loved the Characters. This book never stopped the twists and turns. You think you'd figured it out by some of the clues then bang, just another twist. Nancy Grace impeccably writes this book, I can't wait to read the second in this series and find out how Hailey Dean's character develops even more. This book is shocking at the end but from beginning to end I could not put it down. I felt anger when Cruise got let out of jail for murders he'd committed because of bad policing but in the end justice definitely gets served. The book was kind of confusing with all the other character's stories tied into it but I would still recommend it. It was a great read.
December 21, 2022
Oh god this is so bad. Everyone but haley is smart and none of this makes any logical sense and I'm forcing myself to do ish this book today but I just can't. Nancy Grace clearly thinks highly of herself as Haley seems autobiographical in a sense. This book asks me to believe that instead of assuming that the deaths are committed by the serial killer with the same MO that was recently released isn't suspect number one after the guy attacked her in the court room showing he has animosity towards her but no it's Haley. Also how did Haley not know he was released? The tv show is so much better than this. Just read/skipped over the odd transphobic scene. DNF
July 26, 2010
Hailey Dean was going to be a psychologist or teach psychology at a college but all that changed when her Fiance was murdered in a senseless act of violence.She became a criminal prosecutor in Georgia. She eventually left Georgia for New York where she became a criminal prosecutor for high level crimes. Now there is a murderer out there who kills prostitues. and ties a bakers string in a pretty little bow somewhere on the body.. After Hailey lost her last case she decided to leave law and go into psycology in a private practice. now the killer is after her...
October 14, 2017
It seemed to me that the author had written three short stories and someone convinced her to combine them into enough pages to be called a novel. I have noticed that a few other authors are using this style recently. All three somewhat unrelated stories all play separately and come together to finish at the end of the "novel".
The ending was so ambiguous that I got the second in the series just to see if the really bad guy shows up again. It's not really a page turner.
The ending was so ambiguous that I got the second in the series just to see if the really bad guy shows up again. It's not really a page turner.
November 17, 2009
Great read, very suspensful and never dull. From the first page, it's hard to put down. As Murder mystery, the storyline kept your guessing, and wasn't the least bit predictable. The characters where all very well developed and quite engaging. Overall the book was a quick, easy read and writen with the kind of detail that enables you to create vivid images in your mind as you read.
March 18, 2018
This book did not flow well.
I like the character Hailey from the Hallmark channel and I like Nancy Grace, so I really wanted to like this book more than I did. I read a lot of this genre, but this book was hard to follow. I had to keep rereading pages because it jumped Around so much. It actually was a good story and I hope to like the next one better
I like the character Hailey from the Hallmark channel and I like Nancy Grace, so I really wanted to like this book more than I did. I read a lot of this genre, but this book was hard to follow. I had to keep rereading pages because it jumped Around so much. It actually was a good story and I hope to like the next one better
September 2, 2009
This book is a good crime thriller, but a bit dark in terms of the plot and circumstances surrounding the murders. Nancy Grace is the sister of one of our friends from church and so I thought I'd check it out.
October 5, 2013
The only reason I finished this was because it was part of a challenge I was doing. I liked the story about Hailey, but the other story line she threw in did not connect to the main story so much. I would like to read her second book to give her another try, but I am not sure I will.
November 16, 2009
I happen to be a fan of Nancy Grace and enjoy tuning into her show, so when I heard that she wrote a novel, I figured I'd give it a shot. I was actually surprised at how much I enjoyed this. I wouldn't be surprised if she uses Hailey Dean as a character in a series.
August 27, 2009
Nancy Grace really should stick with HLN. There were several things in here that were just filler. If this was a short story, it would be decent, but she tried too hard to make it a novel.
September 14, 2009
I enjoyed this. I do hope she's writing a sequel as this left some loose ends.
November 3, 2009
Had to give up...the book kept jumping around too much.
February 16, 2014
After I got use to the book having three story lines it was hard to put down. Great twists!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 266 reviews