The Third Victim

I flew through The Third Victim by Lisa Gardner.  It's the third book in the FBI Profiler Series (I think, I forget, but it's not the first! ha) and I had read a few others not in order but this one I picked up at the used book sale at my library last year and just around to reading.  It's a perfect summer time thriller.  It may just be me but summer time is my time to really read thrillers.  Probably because I want to fly through them and I actually have the time to fly through a book and not have to read a book over several days.

Description: An unspeakable act has ripped apart the idyllic town of Bakersville, Oregon, and its once-peaceful residents are demanding quick justice. But though a boy has confessed to the horrific crime, evidence shows he may not be guilty.

Officer Rainie Conner, leading her first homicide investigation, stands at the center of the controversy. It's hitting too close to home, bringing back her worst nightmares, threatening to expose her secret sins. But with the boy's life at stake, she won't let anything stop her from finding the real killer.

With the help of FBI profiler Pierce Quincy, Rainie comes closer to a deadly truth than she can imagine. Because out there in the shadows a man watches her and plots his next move. He knows her secrets. He kills for sport. He's already brought death to Bakersville and forever shattered the community. But what he has really come for is Rainie -- and he won't leave until he has destroyed her..

I've read a few books dealing with school shootings but this takes an interesting approach that got me hooked.  Danny O'Grady is accused of, and confessed to killing two little girls at his school.  However, evidence doesn't really lead the investigators to think that he killed his favorite teacher Melissa Avalon.  With the many twists and turns the investigation takes, I was always engaged and wanted to know who could have done it.  Did Danny really kill all three or was there an outside influence?

The whole concept of an outside influence engaging young boys into acts of violence on their schoolmates  is fascinating to me.  It really makes you think could this happen? How does it happen? Would you know if your own child was capable of shooting up a school? Are you responsible even if you are thirteen and influenced by a trusted adult?

As the prosecutor in the case said, " There should be barriers in all of us.... lines we should know better than to cross.  And one of those barriers should be the resistance to taking human life.."  I tend to agree.  Unless your immediate life is in danger there should be that barrier. 

Do you think people can change? Should juveniles be charged as adults regardless of age or circumstance when it comes to murder?