SYNOPSIS
Detective Alyssa Wyatt is hunting a serial killer.
She doesn’t know that he’s hunting her.
A woman is found naked, badly beaten and barely alive in the New Mexico mountains. The shocking discovery plunges Alberquerque Detective Alyssa Wyatt into a case that will test her to the limit.
It appears that Callie McCormick is the latest plaything of a shadowy psychopath that leaves a long shadow on the streets of New Mexico – an individual linked to a string of deaths but leaving no evidence.
But when Alyssa makes a breathrough that just might reveal the killer, she unknowingly puts herself in the crosshairs of a brutal maniac – one with an old score to settle.
Because the killer knows Alyssa very well, even if she doesn’t know him. And he’s determined that she’ll know his name – even if he has to extract his deadly revenge on her and everything she loves.
MY REVIEW
I really enjoyed this book it is a gripping and tense read, at times you are on the edge of your seat, holding your breath, it certainly keeps your attention from start to finish , with a few good twists to the book that I just didn’t see coming. How did I miss them! I like to think i’m quite a good sofa detective! But then Miss Marple this isn’t. This is the first book in what I hope will become a series, introducing Detective Alyssa Wyatt and her partner Cord Roberts who work for the Alberquerque Police Department. Callie McCormack has disappeared from her home Alyssa and Cord are assigned to the case, but when they find her barely alive they realise that they are hunting an evil predator, realising that Callie is not the first victim to fall foul of this evil killer. The victims all seem to have a likeness to Alyssa which is mentioned a couple of times.
At the beginning of the book the chapters jump backa nd forth on the timeline which give a bit of an overlap of the events that are happening at first i wasn’t sure about this and flicked back a couple of times but once i got used to it it began to make sense. The story is narrated slightly differently from usual police procedural stories, in that it is narrated by Alyssa and the predator Evan Bishop, so you see both sides of the story. The investigation, and the motivation and mindset of the killer. When the killer is done with one person who will he go for next ?. What is in Alyssa’s past that haunts her? It is strange knowing who the perpetrator is, but it worked and didn’t take anything away from the tension. The violence is quite graphic,also at times creepy, so not a cozy murder mystery, and not for the faint hearted. But then i like my crime novels gritty. Although i think its equally nice to have a cozy crime inbetween. I think it became more of a psychological thriller than a police procedural or could be a sort of crossover between the two.
For a debut novel this is very well written, the characters are well thought out, they are likeable, Alyssa’s husband is supportive of her in her work, and a good relatable family, there are some moments of humour, which i like to see even in a gritty crime novel as it can lighten it a little, rather than be all doom and gloom. I would like to see more of these characters and get to know more about them, except for the amount of coffee Alyssa drinks.
I give this book 4 stars out of 5 and look forward to reading more by this author in the future.
I would like to thank #netgalley and #Hera publishers for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest, fair and unbiased review.
Jackie’s Reading Corner 