WIP of the Week: 8/8/11-8/14/11

August 08, 2011

Through a glass, darkly by middlewife
Review by Dragonfly336
Rating: M
Genre: Suspense/Romance, AH
Characters: Edward/Bella
 
Summary: AH/AU. Bella Swan thought being invisible would protect her from the eyes of the world. Instead, it made her an enticing target for a sadistic predator. Can Officer Edward Cullen and his partner protect Bella from her unknown and persistent assailant?

My scrutiny continued as I waited until she was safely inside her little bolthole before leaving the seclusion of my surveillance point. I crept along the rooftops lining the alley behind her building until I found my favorite vantage point, giving me an uninterrupted view of her small living room. I watched as she unpacked her messenger bag, unloading her books onto the tiny dining table, which doubled as her desk. She disappeared briefly from my view, returning after changing from her 'outside' uniform to the 'inside' comfort of a tank and yoga pants. I studied her as she went about her nightly routine, as familiar to me as her dainty features. 

Soon, she would be mine and mine alone. One touch and I would know all her secrets. Soon… 

This is an excerpt from the prologue of middlewife’s first full-length story, Through a glass, darkly. This is told from an unknown person’s POV. The next chapter we get to see a glimpse into Edward’s life. He is a police officer and is partners with his brother in law Jasper. They get called to the scene for a possible code 48, a deceased individual. They arrive at an old warehouse district, where a group of teens happened to have stumbled upon a body.

My mental inventory kicked up a notch with that one. Oozing wounds, congealing blood – the body must be quite fresh then. As I held my flashlight focussed on her head, something shimmered in the periphery of the light, catching my attention. Her chest, had it moved? I crouched for a closer look. The arm laying over the top of the body obscured my view as I concentrated fiercely. Yes! It was rising. Barely, but definitely rising. I shot abruptly to my feet.

"Jasper, she's alive! Call an ambulance." 

After a few days of being in the hospital, they finally learn their Jane Doe’s identity, one Ms. Bella Swan. She suffered from an acute form of amnesia, due to her brain injuries, but soon starts recovering bits and pieces from her life. She was all alone in her life, her mother and father both deceased. She lived a life of obscurity, not having any friends, not doing anything to get noticed. She also lacks a verbal filter in the first days after her accident.

The tall one put out his hand, stating his name was Officer Cullen. I grasped the Cullen God's proffered hand in my left, since my right was still strapped into the brace. I held it awkwardly, staring at his long fingers with their clean and trimmed nails, mesmerized by how handsome they were, too. He stared at me as if he expected me to let go. 

"You have nice hands, too," I said. "Soft and warm, and so big," I marveled. I stroked his fingers as I continued to stare at them. 

The other one tried unsuccessfully to suppress a laugh as the Cullen God changed color. I must have been doing something wrong, I realized, so I released his hand and tucked my now lonely one under the colorful quilt covering my legs. 

There are many things to like about this story. There is the suspense of a stalker, who keeps coming back. There is some humor and there is some nice UST. I actually really enjoy all of the police terminology and the realistic life of a police officer, not some hyped up Law and Order scenario. The case definitely does not get solved in forty-eight hours. I also enjoy the slow burn of Edward and Isabella realizing their feelings for each other and the reality of the fact that she is his case. We also see Isabella recognize how her life was before the attack, and even though she still can’t remember that, she realizes that she doesn’t want to lead that lonely existence anymore.

Now is the perfect time to start reading Through a glass, darkly. Things are starting to heat up for our favorite couple and I am sure there is plenty more suspense to be read as they try and discover Bella’s attacker. You won’t regret it!

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