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Dawn Girl: A Gripping Serial Killer Thriller
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- Dawn Girl: A Gripping Serial Killer Thriller
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- Customer reviews
Top positive review
Definitely recommend this book
November 7, 2016
Its about time someone writes a serial killer book without having to shove the blood and gore in your face. This was scarier with my imagination, though don't get me wrong, there was plenty of inuendo. Also, I appreciate the author not trying to write a 500 page novel by adding hundreds of pages of filler. This author gave a fast paced book without all the "nonsense" so many authors today feel the need to stick in. Just because the book is 500 pages long doesn't make it a great novel. If you are any good as an author, you can accomplish it in 300 pages or less. And if she writes another book about this character, I will definitely read it. I usually love these types of books but lately no one writes a book unless they tell you every single gory detail like I'm watching a B movie on the Syfy channel. Apparently this author gives her reader some credit for intelligence. Great book.
93 people found this helpful
Top critical review
Good fast paced thriller, but sloppy research
January 13, 2018
Leslie Wolfe writes a good thriller, fast paced, not too filled with extraneous material, but I gave her three stars for several reasons: First, when 'Dawn Girl' 's body was first discovered, it was on Palm Beach. Then every time the beach where her body lay was mentioned, it was Juno Beach, which is nearly 20 miles from Palm Beach! Yet, the detectives who worked the case with her were Palm Beach police. Then she's calling them Palm Beach County Police. If they were Palm Beach County cops, they'd be from the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office, and they wouldn't be working a Palm Beach case. If the body were discovered on Juno Beach, the Juno Beach Police Department would be working it, not the Palm Beach Police Department. Then, in Miami, they don't do as real cops do and go to the police station to get them involved since it was in their back yard; they work it alone without the courtesy of getting the local cops involved. And especially, not to involve local police when they went to get the collar on the maniacal suspect on Biscayne Bay in Miami . As a writer I found this confusing and contradictory, which is a shame, because Wolfe knows how to write a fast paced thriller which holds the reader's attention on the action. I look forward to reading more of her thrillers, as I liked Agent Tess Winnett, flawed because of what the suspect did to her in the past, but a good FBI agent, nonetheless.
11 people found this helpful
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Showing 1-10 of 2,302 reviews
November 7, 2016
Its about time someone writes a serial killer book without having to shove the blood and gore in your face. This was scarier with my imagination, though don't get me wrong, there was plenty of inuendo. Also, I appreciate the author not trying to write a 500 page novel by adding hundreds of pages of filler. This author gave a fast paced book without all the "nonsense" so many authors today feel the need to stick in. Just because the book is 500 pages long doesn't make it a great novel. If you are any good as an author, you can accomplish it in 300 pages or less. And if she writes another book about this character, I will definitely read it. I usually love these types of books but lately no one writes a book unless they tell you every single gory detail like I'm watching a B movie on the Syfy channel. Apparently this author gives her reader some credit for intelligence. Great book.
September 1, 2016
I have read all of Leslie Wolfe's books from Amazon and probably enjoyed this the most although I enjoyed the others also. I thought the first quarter or so of the book moved a little slowly but at some point I couldn't put it down. Very suspenseful. I liked this book better than Ms. Wolfe's other offerings because I found it to be a bit more "realistic" or believable (as believable goes) in terms of the main female character and the overall plot. I also found myself doing less skimming through this book versus the others. I tend to skim over laborious descriptions of various settings or things (like the description or details of a room or what or how characters are eating). For example, far too many references to coffee drinking in the other books - who cares). Overall, very good book and I would recommend it.
February 2, 2017
4.5 stars
Gosh, another unexpected terrific read for me! I want to thank my Goodreads friend Mike (HornFan2) for steering me to this one. Dawn Girl is written by little known (at the moment) author Leslie Wolfe. I suspect she will not be little known for long.
Protagonist FBI Special Agent Tess Winnett is in trouble at work. She’s is as good as they come in terms of solving whatever case is assigned to her, but she has no people skills, thanks in good part to her untreated PTSD. She garners way more than her share of complaints by disrespecting colleagues, witnesses, politicians, and just about everybody else she comes in contact with. One more major complaint and she will be fired, no matter how phenomenal she is at her job. She is assigned to help out police detectives Gary Michowsky and Todd Fradella of West Palm Beach, Florida, when a young woman is found dead on the beach. Could this be the work of a serial killer? Tess has to try to mesh with these detectives in order to break the case open.
We get snippets of info about the killer as the story moves along. He is a sadistic SOB with extraordinarily high-level skills in terms of carrying out his mission.
I can easily heap a lot of praise on this book. Tess is a complex character who is very well written. We get into her mind a lot. Not all will like her, but I sure did. She is making an effort to change her ways for which I give her credit. I appreciate the attention paid to creating depth in the evolution of Tess’s relationship with the West Palm Beach cops. Another real plus is the highly detailed chapter involving the FBI profiler and his thought processes in determining the psychological profile of the bad guy. We essentially get a step-by-step lesson in how to determine what an unknown baddie is all about. Ditto regarding the chapter devoted to filling in a whiteboard—I found that fascinating. We get a lot of attention to procedure in this police/FBI procedural.
Even in the absence of a prologue, I was pulled into the story immediately. I was riveted all the way to the end. There are plenty of high tension, twists and turns. I felt strongly invested in Tess and her makeshift team. The chapters are short and snappy and the tale flows beautifully.
Why 4.5 stars and not 5? Two reasons. One of the twists I saw coming very early on, but that didn’t bother me much. My main beef was that a portion of the ending is too neat and a bit unrealistic. Other than that, this novel is a total winner. I am rounding up as Dawn Girl had much more of a 5-star rather than a 4-star effect on me.
I strongly recommend Dawn Girl to all thriller/crime fiction fans and readers of psychological suspense. I think followers of Angela Marsons and Robert Bryndza would especially love this book. I have already bought book 2 in the Tess Winnett series (The Watson Girl) and can’t wait to get to it.
Congratulations, Leslie Wolfe for what I believe could be a hit series!
Gosh, another unexpected terrific read for me! I want to thank my Goodreads friend Mike (HornFan2) for steering me to this one. Dawn Girl is written by little known (at the moment) author Leslie Wolfe. I suspect she will not be little known for long.
Protagonist FBI Special Agent Tess Winnett is in trouble at work. She’s is as good as they come in terms of solving whatever case is assigned to her, but she has no people skills, thanks in good part to her untreated PTSD. She garners way more than her share of complaints by disrespecting colleagues, witnesses, politicians, and just about everybody else she comes in contact with. One more major complaint and she will be fired, no matter how phenomenal she is at her job. She is assigned to help out police detectives Gary Michowsky and Todd Fradella of West Palm Beach, Florida, when a young woman is found dead on the beach. Could this be the work of a serial killer? Tess has to try to mesh with these detectives in order to break the case open.
We get snippets of info about the killer as the story moves along. He is a sadistic SOB with extraordinarily high-level skills in terms of carrying out his mission.
I can easily heap a lot of praise on this book. Tess is a complex character who is very well written. We get into her mind a lot. Not all will like her, but I sure did. She is making an effort to change her ways for which I give her credit. I appreciate the attention paid to creating depth in the evolution of Tess’s relationship with the West Palm Beach cops. Another real plus is the highly detailed chapter involving the FBI profiler and his thought processes in determining the psychological profile of the bad guy. We essentially get a step-by-step lesson in how to determine what an unknown baddie is all about. Ditto regarding the chapter devoted to filling in a whiteboard—I found that fascinating. We get a lot of attention to procedure in this police/FBI procedural.
Even in the absence of a prologue, I was pulled into the story immediately. I was riveted all the way to the end. There are plenty of high tension, twists and turns. I felt strongly invested in Tess and her makeshift team. The chapters are short and snappy and the tale flows beautifully.
Why 4.5 stars and not 5? Two reasons. One of the twists I saw coming very early on, but that didn’t bother me much. My main beef was that a portion of the ending is too neat and a bit unrealistic. Other than that, this novel is a total winner. I am rounding up as Dawn Girl had much more of a 5-star rather than a 4-star effect on me.
I strongly recommend Dawn Girl to all thriller/crime fiction fans and readers of psychological suspense. I think followers of Angela Marsons and Robert Bryndza would especially love this book. I have already bought book 2 in the Tess Winnett series (The Watson Girl) and can’t wait to get to it.
Congratulations, Leslie Wolfe for what I believe could be a hit series!
October 27, 2016
Terrific story about a young woman FBI agent who must battle her own demons in search of a monster who is killing young women. The plot is excellent and keeps the reader involved throughout the book.The two main characters while very different in many ways actually have many commonalities. This book is well worth your time and money.
January 13, 2018
Leslie Wolfe writes a good thriller, fast paced, not too filled with extraneous material, but I gave her three stars for several reasons: First, when 'Dawn Girl' 's body was first discovered, it was on Palm Beach. Then every time the beach where her body lay was mentioned, it was Juno Beach, which is nearly 20 miles from Palm Beach! Yet, the detectives who worked the case with her were Palm Beach police. Then she's calling them Palm Beach County Police. If they were Palm Beach County cops, they'd be from the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office, and they wouldn't be working a Palm Beach case. If the body were discovered on Juno Beach, the Juno Beach Police Department would be working it, not the Palm Beach Police Department. Then, in Miami, they don't do as real cops do and go to the police station to get them involved since it was in their back yard; they work it alone without the courtesy of getting the local cops involved. And especially, not to involve local police when they went to get the collar on the maniacal suspect on Biscayne Bay in Miami . As a writer I found this confusing and contradictory, which is a shame, because Wolfe knows how to write a fast paced thriller which holds the reader's attention on the action. I look forward to reading more of her thrillers, as I liked Agent Tess Winnett, flawed because of what the suspect did to her in the past, but a good FBI agent, nonetheless.
January 20, 2018
DAWN GIRL By Leslie Wolfe
MY BOOK REVIEW DAWN GIRL By Leslie Wolfe
FIVE STARS*****
I read The Watson Girl by Leslie Wolfe and became an immediate fan of this outstanding author. He introduces his protagonist FBI Agent Tess Winnett in this book (Dawn Girl) and it is another thrilling novel that I was unable to put down.
Wolfe is an exciting new author to me that I have added to my favorites. His traumatized FBI Agent Tess is an intuitive, if not brilliant detective, and we are privy to be along on her journey as she hones her budding skills as an FBI profiler. She has all of the guts and grit that I love to see in female heroes who inhabit the police procedurals and psychological suspense genre. Wolfe has a talent for creating serial killers who seem chillingly real and incredibly menacing. This is a terrific book, and a thrilling read. I have already purchased and am a third of the way through Glimpse Of Death, the third book in the Tess Winnett series by Wolfe.
MY BOOK REVIEW DAWN GIRL By Leslie Wolfe
FIVE STARS*****
I read The Watson Girl by Leslie Wolfe and became an immediate fan of this outstanding author. He introduces his protagonist FBI Agent Tess Winnett in this book (Dawn Girl) and it is another thrilling novel that I was unable to put down.
Wolfe is an exciting new author to me that I have added to my favorites. His traumatized FBI Agent Tess is an intuitive, if not brilliant detective, and we are privy to be along on her journey as she hones her budding skills as an FBI profiler. She has all of the guts and grit that I love to see in female heroes who inhabit the police procedurals and psychological suspense genre. Wolfe has a talent for creating serial killers who seem chillingly real and incredibly menacing. This is a terrific book, and a thrilling read. I have already purchased and am a third of the way through Glimpse Of Death, the third book in the Tess Winnett series by Wolfe.
September 22, 2017
Dawn Girl: A Gripping Serial Killer Thriller by Leslie Wolfe is a chilling suspense-filled book. While it did have disturbing scenes, they advanced the storyline. I gave it five stars.
FBI Special Agent Tess Winnett searches for who she believes to be a serial killer. She has secrets of her own.
Detective Gary Michowsky is assigned to the murder of the young woman found on the beach. "'We're not concerned with footprints, I guess,' Michowsky muttered, looking at the foot-print covered sand. He watched for a few seconds how the ocean breeze carried specks of sand to and from their crime scene, eroding, altering everything. Nature was the perfect forensic countermeasure, especially there, on the beach."
Doc Rizza was the coroner who arrived to determine time and cause of death. After scanning her fingerprints, they learned she was not in the system. Her name was Sonya Weaver and they found her from a "missing person" report filed five days earlier.
"The killer was a psychopath, no doubt, but even for a psychopath, what kind of brain would concoct such an elevated recipe for torture?"
In meeting with the family of a missing girl, Tess and Detective Michowsky witnessed an exchange between the parents and the one girl remaining at home. "A moment of silence developed, one of those uncomfortable, disturbing scenes quite common for troubled, dysfunctional families."
Link to purchase: Dawn Girl: A Gripping Serial Killer Thriller
FBI Special Agent Tess Winnett searches for who she believes to be a serial killer. She has secrets of her own.
Detective Gary Michowsky is assigned to the murder of the young woman found on the beach. "'We're not concerned with footprints, I guess,' Michowsky muttered, looking at the foot-print covered sand. He watched for a few seconds how the ocean breeze carried specks of sand to and from their crime scene, eroding, altering everything. Nature was the perfect forensic countermeasure, especially there, on the beach."
Doc Rizza was the coroner who arrived to determine time and cause of death. After scanning her fingerprints, they learned she was not in the system. Her name was Sonya Weaver and they found her from a "missing person" report filed five days earlier.
"The killer was a psychopath, no doubt, but even for a psychopath, what kind of brain would concoct such an elevated recipe for torture?"
In meeting with the family of a missing girl, Tess and Detective Michowsky witnessed an exchange between the parents and the one girl remaining at home. "A moment of silence developed, one of those uncomfortable, disturbing scenes quite common for troubled, dysfunctional families."
Link to purchase: Dawn Girl: A Gripping Serial Killer Thriller
I really enjoyed this book and am looking forward to reading the second book in the series - The Watson Girl.
June 23, 2017Two teens run off in the hours right before dawn. They run to the beach to be alone and you know...watch the sunrise! While Carl and Kris are enjoying themselves on the beach waiting for the morning light, a serial killer is a stone's throw away posing his latest victim. Once dawn's light shines through, Kris lets out a scream that both she and Carl would most likely never forget. There was a body of a dead girl right there on the beach where they were recently taking pictures and making memories. Little did they know their dream date would become a nightmare. Detective Gary Michowsky and the local police department were on the case, but soon thereafter Tess Willett of the FBI was sent in. Tess is a victim too, but no one knows that except Tess and her friend Cat. As Tess is fighting her own demons, she enters the crime scene of DAWN GIRL... a young woman posed dead on the beach at dawn.
Whether it's because of her personality or life experience, Tess is not much of a people person. I liked her interactions with Detective Michowsky. She was herself - a straight arrow who didn't pull any punches. Michowsky was a seasoned detective who, even though going through some rough times of his own, didn't feel the need to burden others with his problems. He did like to play it safe, but when it really counted, he put his life on the line for what he believed in.
As Tess worked the case, her own past continued to haunt her. Little by little pieces started to come together and in the end, a serial killer was found, but Tess got more than she bargained for!
Whether it's because of her personality or life experience, Tess is not much of a people person. I liked her interactions with Detective Michowsky. She was herself - a straight arrow who didn't pull any punches. Michowsky was a seasoned detective who, even though going through some rough times of his own, didn't feel the need to burden others with his problems. He did like to play it safe, but when it really counted, he put his life on the line for what he believed in.
As Tess worked the case, her own past continued to haunt her. Little by little pieces started to come together and in the end, a serial killer was found, but Tess got more than she bargained for!
