The Chosen

By Sylvia Plath

Bolt the doors, turn on the lights and pray for mercy – you'll be up all night with this disturbingly addictive novel – perfect for fans of Karen Rose.

It's the ultimate game.
To win, you have to kill.
To lose, you have to die.
If he's chosen you to play, then it's Game Over…

A brutal serial killer is on the loose. Each victim is a former beauty queen, a single rose placed next to their mutilated bodies.

The scenes of unimaginable carnage have become familiar to Detective Lindsay McAllister. For the last 5 years, dozens of beautiful women have been slain and lives have been shattered, including Judd Walker whose wife was one of the first victims.

But when the killer strikes again Lindsey knows she needs Judd's help. The murderer is getting bolder, faster, and more ruthless. The game has escalated, the rules have changed, the body count is rising…and no one is safe.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins UK
• Release date: Sep 4, 2008
• ISBN: 9780007281855

Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath was born in 1932 in Massachusetts. Her books include the poetry collections The Colossus, Crossing the Water, Winter Trees, Ariel, and Collected Poems, which won the Pulitzer Prize. A complete and uncut facsimile edition of Ariel was published in 2004 with her original selection and arrangement of poems. She was married to the poet Ted Hughes, with whom she had a daughter, Frieda, and a son, Nicholas. She died in London in 1963.

Reviews for The Chosen

[carol420 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In Chattanooga though her husband Judd would object to her showing off a house at night, realtor Jennifer Walker agrees to take a potential customer and his wife to see an expensive mansion. However, instead of a sale that she would use to furnish a nursery, the man slices off her hands before killing her. He leaves behind a rose and a devastated spouse, who hires his friend's Powell private investigative firm to uncover the identity of the killer.This is an awesomely scary book that will keep you guessing almost until the end. I was completely unable to guess the identity of the killer and had to wait until the author was ready to reveal whodunnit.

[seldombites · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is an awesomely scary book that will keep you guessing almost until the end. I was completely unable to guess the identity of the killer and had to wait until the author was ready to reveal whodunnit. There appears to be another book with the same characters. I will definitely be looking it up, because I thoroughly enjoyed The Dying Game. Read it. It's good.

[hunebeenz2 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This was a re-read for me (wanted to refresh my mind before reading next in series). It was ok for me but, I in the end I just wanted it to get finished. IMO the whole book was like an over-acted play. I just didn't connect with anyone. Jude seemed to have a complete change of heart and I never really understood why. Griffin had a callous attitude one minute and a caring attitude the next, with no rhyme nor reason for either. Lindsay just simply pissed me off. I kept waiting for her to grow a backbone....never happened. I usually quite enjoy a storyline involving a serial killer and don't mind if it's graphic, but in this case I thought it was rather OTT. I never connected with the killer/s because I never got any sense of where the violence evolved from. Overall, I would give this a 1.5 and I am a little reluctant to read the next in the series. Griffin just simply annoyed me, so not sure whether I want to read his story or not. Having said all this Beverly Barton is still one of my favourite reads

[dominique_nikki · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really love the mixture of romance and suspense in this book. The story is well-made and when I was reading it, it felt like I was in that gruesome scene too. That's how good this book is. After reading this, it made me crave for more of Beverly's books.

[wyvernfriend · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

There's a serial killer at large, killing former beauty queens with a single rose placed next to their bodies. One of the people whose wives has been killed is Judd Walker, a man who is barely holding on to life, living only to find who did this to his wife and to exact his revenge. His friends want to help him and one of them is former police detective turned private detective Lindsay McAllister, working to find the killer and to bring him to some form of justice. They're working both with and against the FBI, hoping that they can find the killer and stop him before he kills more.It's an interesting read, shocking and scary. The characters really did come across as interesting to me and I did care what happened and how the murder would be solved.