Summary: He performs his profane ceremony in a wooded Minneapolis park, anointing his victims, then setting the bodies ablaze. He has already claimed three lives, and he won’t stop there. Only this time there is a witness. But she isn’t talking.
Enter Kate Conlan, former FBI agent turned victim/witness advocate. Not even she can tell if the reluctant witness is a potential victim or something more troubling still. Her superiors are interested only because the latest victim may be the daughter of Peter Bondurant, an enigmatic billionaire. When Peter pulls strings, Special Agent John Quinn gets assigned to the case. But the FBI’s ace profiler of serial killers is the last person Kate wants to work with, not with their troubled history. Now she faces the most difficult role of her career—and her life. For she’s the only woman who has what it takes to stop the killer . . . and the one woman he wants next.
Enter Kate Conlan, former FBI agent turned victim/witness advocate. Not even she can tell if the reluctant witness is a potential victim or something more troubling still. Her superiors are interested only because the latest victim may be the daughter of Peter Bondurant, an enigmatic billionaire. When Peter pulls strings, Special Agent John Quinn gets assigned to the case. But the FBI’s ace profiler of serial killers is the last person Kate wants to work with, not with their troubled history. Now she faces the most difficult role of her career—and her life. For she’s the only woman who has what it takes to stop the killer . . . and the one woman he wants next.
Pages: 576
Goodreads Rating: 4.02/ 5 stars
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense, Fiction, Crime Fiction, Adult Lit, Romance
Series: Kovac and Liska #1
Series: Kovac and Liska #1
The writing is fantastically addictive and the characters are so diverse and real, to the point that they feel like individuals you know, love, and hate. Brimming with a wonderful sense of familiarity! Fast paced but thorough and filled with fantastic detail. The flow was easy enough to fall into step with and the story, itself, is beyond easy to lose yourself in. It's always a treat to come across a book that is impossible to put down. I went to bed with question after question, I woke up with questions, I read on with questions burning holes through my mind.
The characters felt wonderfully real as well as all of the situations. The actuality of how real and possible all of those situations felt made the thriller aspect of this novel all the more engrossing and nerve wracking. For each answer that Hoag gifted you with she fired three more loaded questions or speculations your way. In one sentence you felt convinced that you knew who the killer was, and in the next breath you were back to not knowing. I found myself second guessing every character's motives to the point of paranoia and just when I was convinced I knew who the killer was, Hoag hit me with a whammy of all whammies; multiple revelations within a short span of time that made me take a step back and view all of the players on the chess board in a new light.
The romantic interest on the side was done very well and in its own way became intricate to the story line. The romance was suspenseful, hot then cold then hot again, it was lacking in faith, it was brutally honest, it was love. But most importantly it was real. It felt tangible; it read like an actual romantic relationship, that real human beings are capable of experiencing. What I loved the most was that the concluding page didn't bring a happy ending to (the case or )the romance, but rather a happy beginning. A beginning of wonderful things to come.
I highly recommend checking out this book and I, myself, cannot wait to get my hands on more of Hoag's work. My Goodreads Rating: 5/ 5 stars.
- Anisa
