It starts with an art show. Jane is exhibiting her paintings at her friend Celine's Paris gallery and having great success. However, one of her paintings - Guilt - has attracted the attention of a cult based on worship of Judas. Though the image of the man in the painting came to Jane in a dream, the cultists recognize it as Judas and feel that she is blaspheming him. The only thing that will satisfy them is Jane's death as the annual sacrifice. They give her eight days to live and the deaths start piling up around her.But Jane isn't alone. She is being protected by her old friend Jock and the formidable MacDuff. She also calls in the enigmatic Seth Caleb who has unusual talents and a need for Jane. Jane isn't at all sure about him and their relationship is a prickly one. But Jane will do anything that she has to do to protect the people she loves - especially Eve and Joe. There are two main villains in this one who are equally evil but who express it in different ways. Millet is the loony who is the head of the cult and who gets off on torturing women. Roland is the behind the scenes puppetmaster who pointed Millet at Jane. While Millet wants Jane as a fitting sacrifice in the annual Offering, Roland is more interested in getting hold of Judas' 30 pieces of silver. He believes that Jane can guide him to them. The story was filled with action, danger, and excitement. The characters were well-drawn and the scenes suspenseful. I had the unique opportunity to listen to the MP3 audio of the first half of the book when I was traveling and then finishing the book by reading it from my TBR mountain. I enjoyed having a voice in my head for the characters based on the audio portion I heard. I recommend this suspense title. Johansen writes compelling thrillers about interesting characters. Even though this is considered part of the Eve Duncan series, this was told through the eyes of Jane, similar to some of the other books in this series. I almost like it better when it is told through her perspective, it gives it a different feel to the narrative. However, Iris Johansen got a little too weird for me in this book. In a previous novel she had made reference to a character with psychic powers who then released those powers onto another character (don't want to spoil anything), and although it was weird and out of the loop I thought it would end there. In this book, she took it even further and it reminded me of the powers the characters in Twilight have and I just felt it didn't have a place in this crime fiction series. I don't object to fantasy books, I just don't feel that it fits right in this series which has a definite emphasis on practical,level-headed women. I also found the relationship between Jane and Caleb to have a whole lot of build up that resulted in a whole lot of nothing. I can only assume that it will carry on to another book, but for now it's just annoying. Overall, I rate it highly because I do appreciate the Jane viewpoint and I do still feel attached to the series and the characters in it (it is book #10 after all, how could I not?).
What do You think about Eight Days To Live (2010)?
Paranormal through dreams. Jane is targeted because of her paintings that result from these dreams.
—Prizzy_Fizzyx
Really enjoyed reading this book. Lots of action and twists. Had trouble putting it down!
—lesnoura
