Kindle Edition Amazon Amazon Category:  Mystery/Suspense ISBN-10:  1729156800 Type: Fiction Copyright: 2018 ISBN-13: 9781729156803 Price: $4.99 (eBook) The Westwood Strangler is dead. Or so everyone believes. Ann Malone Kern is busy preparing for her favorite holiday. She’s especially looking forward to her sister’s annual Christmas visit. But, several things threaten to ruin her festive mood.The National Weather Service issues a severe winter storm warning for the Cincinnati area, predicting blizzard conditions, and Ann worries that her sister and her new boyfriend won’t be able to make the drive from South Carolina. Then, a woman is found strangled in Ann’s neighborhood and everyone, including the police, assumes it’s the work of a copycat killer. However, when two more women are murdered in their homes, the police announce their conviction that the Westwood Strangler is responsible. When Ann hears the news, the sense of safety and security she’s worked so hard to recapture since her attack on Halloween night, shatters. If the intruder who died in her apartment wasn’t the Westwood Strangler, who is? Excerpt I pace the floor, my mind going a mile a minute, while the rest of the world sleeps. There is no rest for me because I am not like the others. I have a responsibility. So much to do. So little time. It is all up to me. I light a candle and the flames make dancing shadows on the walls, in sync with Mozart’s Requiem. Pure, beautiful music: the way life should be. Not like the mindless trash I hear thumping from car stereos these days, screaming words of profanity. Quality has virtually disappeared and in its place? Quantity. People want more and they want it now. They insist on instant gratification. Fast food. Faster everything. They drive their cars like lunatics, virtually riding the bumper of the car in front of them, urging the driver to go faster or get out of their way. They risk other people’s lives so they can get home two minutes earlier. And for what? To sit in front of the television set staring mindlessly at nothing, nothing of any value. It is sinful! The world is a terrible place. God should be first! No one puts God first anymore. If they would turn their lives over to Him, they would be saved. But some refuse to be saved. Instead, they go about their pathetic lives, thinking only of themselves. What do I want and what do I have to do to get it? They use sex to manipulate others. Women haunt bars and flaunt their scantily clad bodies to get what they want. They have no family values, no morals. Adultery, abortion: atrocities against God. Some people don’t deserve to live. They do not even care that their immoral acts, their lack of common decency, their selfishness, harms everyone around them. That has to stop. I have to stop it. It is all up to me. God has spoken to me. He has chosen me to carry out His work and He has shown me The Way. I know what needs to be done and, to honor Him, I will do His will. People have to pay for their sins. I will make them pay. Actually, the deed itself is almost always so easy. People are creatures of habit. They leave their doors unlocked when they walk out to get the morning paper or take out the garbage, never thinking that someone might be watching them, waiting for an opportunity. They assume that “it” will never happen to them. But, for some, it will. I will see to it. I must be the strong one. In the time I have left here, I must do my part to save at least this little corner of the world. And I must be careful. I must plan everything in advance, down to the smallest detail. Timing is of the utmost importance. I must be patient. It all comes down to control: self-control. I must suppress the rage inside me. I need to play my role perfectly. I must continue to do all the things that are expected of me. Never show anyone the way I feel. I must say all the right words. Do all the right things. It is all up to me. No one must suspect me. No one must ever know. I cannot afford to make any mistakes. That would ruin everything. They would never understand and they would try to stop me. Then, there would be no one to carry out God’s work. It is sad enough that, when I’m gone, there will be no one left to rid this neighborhood of the human garbage. I blow out the candle, extinguishing its life and pray for a few hours of sleep before dawn. I will not have to wait much longer. I can feel it. It is almost time again.

Great creep factor
In Patricia Gligor's UNFINISHED BUSINESS, Ann Kern is still recovering emotionally from an attack by a serial killer. The only thing that gives her a sense of peace is knowing her stalker is dead, and can never hurt her or anyone else again. Or is he?

When attacks begin again with the same M.O., everyone believes a copycat is to blame. Or is it possible the killer is somehow still alive?

Set against the backdrop of Christmas, the creep factor is high as Ann tries to celebrate her holidays, deal with personal problems, and keep an eye looking over her shoulder for a madman.

Suspects are diverse and plentiful, as are the twists and intertwining relationships. Gligor particularly excels at establishing a sense of place. I could feel the cold and smell the fresh bread baking as I read this book. You'll know these characters and feel like you're right there with them as the story unfolds.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS is the second in the Malone series, the follow up to MIXED MESSAGES. Although I didn't read MIXED MESSAGES first, I had no trouble following UNFINISHED BUSINESS and didn't find the background update intrusive at all. Enough information was provided to understand the backdrop, but not so much that the story was burdened with too many past fast.

A great read that will make you want to check that your doors are locked before you go to sleep.

Holli Castillo

Can't Wait for the Next Story
Unfinished Business by Patricia Gligor is a book you won't want to miss. It's the Christmas season, 2009, but Ann isn't sure how much she'll have to celebrate. The Westwood Strangler is back and life means little to him. Or is the killer a woman?

The oddest part is that everyone thought the killer had died in October after attacking Ann. After a brief span, the bodies are piling up, and it's definitely the work of the same monster. Ann starts receiving horrid phone calls again, just as she did the first time around.

Her family and friends help her hold on to some semblance of normalcy, but will the killer come after her? The next victim could be anyone. The Westwood Strangler could be anyone. Ann has suspicions, but there are too many people who might fit the mold.

Ms. Gligor has done an excellent job of creating a list of suspects, any one of which could be the real killer. I thoroughly enjoyed her character development and the growth each one individual in her story. I highly recommend this book to readers who enjoy mystery, suspense, and good characters.

Marja McGraw

Satisfying Sequel
Just as she's looking forward to Christmas and an anticipated visit by her sister, Ann Kern discovers the serial killer who'd stalked her months earlier isn't dead.

Ann is shaken by the revelation because she'd been thriving on a sense of security instilled by the death of the intruder in her apartment everyone believed to be the Westwood Strangler. The first new victim is written off as the work of a copycat killer. But when two more women are murdered police conclude they were mistaken in their belief the Strangler was gone.

As a blizzard closes in around the Cincinnati area, Ann is besieged once more with crank calls and threatening notes and virtually every man around her becomes a suspect.

The murderer isn't the only unfinished business in this novel. Patricia Gligor has provided a number of characters with secrets that need unraveling and add depth to her story. In this second in her Malone series, Gligor has crafted a group of memorable characters, a tense plot and a satisfying conclusion for all the various threads.

John R. Lindermuth