Double Take

Mystery and thriller

First published: 2007
Print length: 420 pagesG.P. Putnam's Sons, 2007

Description

Still grieving the murder of her husband, renowned psychic August Ransom, Julia Ransom survives a violent attack at San Francisco’s Pier 39 when Special Agent Cheney Stone intervenes. Stone believes the assault may connect to August’s unsolved death, so he protects Julia while reopening the investigation. Across the country, Virginia sheriff Dixon Noble is mourning his missing wife when he learns that a San Francisco woman looks almost exactly like her. Though skeptical, he travels west and joins Stone’s inquiry. Their paths converge around the mysterious Charlotte Pallack and a dangerous network of psychics and impersonators. Double Take builds suspense from uncertain identities, duplicated appearances, and competing explanations as two investigations test what witnesses can trust about memory, resemblance, and apparent supernatural knowledge.

Reading profile

About this profile

Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).

Writing: How much attention the sentences and language require.
Ideas: How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
Structure: How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
Background knowledge: Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
Emotional intensity: Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.

Writing style

Descriptive · Dialogue-driven · Direct

Pace

Brisk

Tone

Dark · Suspenseful · Tense · Unsettling

Structure

Braided

Focus

Character · Mystery · Plot

Emotional intensity

4 / 5

Reading complexity

1–5 · higher means more demanding

Writing: 2 / 5
Ideas: 2 / 5
Structure: 3 / 5
Background knowledge: 1 / 5

Themes

Crime and punishmentGriefIdentityKnowledge and truthMemory

About Catherine Coulter

Catherine Coulter is an American novelist whose long career spans historical romance and contemporary romantic suspense. Her first novel, The Autumn Countess, appeared in 1978; she later became a full-time writer and built a catalog of more than fifty books. Her historical novels often place strong-willed women inside restrictive systems of courtship and marriage. In The Rebel Bride and Midsummer Magic, disguise, defiance, and mismatched expectations drive both romantic conflict and comedy, while Devil’s Embrace and The Autumn Countess use captivity, secrecy, and volatile households to create darker, gothic pressure. Double Take carries her interest in vulnerability and trust into a modern thriller shaped by an FBI investigation, violent danger, and an unsolved murder. Across these modes, Coulter favors direct, descriptive prose, prominent dialogue, and swift plots built around relationships under stress. Her work is distinguished by the continuity between its genres: romance seldom stands apart from danger, and suspense repeatedly tests autonomy, loyalty, and emotional power.

Series

FBI Thriller · Book 11

Book details

For the print edition listed above.

Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons
Language: English
ISBN: 9780399154249

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