Stain of Guilt by Brandilyn Collins

Annie has spent the last 10 months learning how to become a forensic artist. When she is asked to do an aged drawing of a killer that has been on the run for 20 years she has her misgivings. The case is going to be featured on the TV show American Fugitive with Annie's drawing hopefully bringing justice to a family beyond ready for closure. Once again Annie and her family are in danger and Annie is feeling overwhelmed. With her son Stephen acting out Annie's life is slowly spinning out of control. Having promised God that she would seek Him after the last time she was in danger, Annie has been attending church. She believes what she is hearing but still is wanting to hold on to what little control she has.

I have so many feelings about this book! I found it exciting and suspenseful at times and then other times I found it frustrating and a bit irritating. I loved the suspense and the danger that Annie and her family was going through. I loved how we got peeks into the killer's thoughts. There were several twists that the story took that had me holding my breath with anticipation of the outcome. The frustrating/irritating parts to me were Annie's son's behavior and even Annie herself with getting overwhelmed so easily. Stephen, Annie's son is a typical self-centered teen, but add in some drugs, questionable friendships, and anger at both of his parents and you have a very unlikable character. At one point(spoiler alert!), he is arrested and this is where Annie's behavior irritated me. The inability to know what to do and function in the setting brought my hackles up. Even though she was encouraged to let the brat sit and stew she couldn't do it. Gah! I hope she gains a backbone soon and grows in confidence because she is irritating me! Now, all of that being said, the book still held my attention, it had me turning the pages quickly to find out what happens and it had enough suspense to keep my heart racing. There isn't any romance so far, but it seems that there are 2 guys that may be vying for her attention in the close future. All in all the Hidden Faces series is exciting and had me going to buy the next one as soon as I finished STAIN OF GUILT.