This mystery/thriller follows police detective Annalisa Vega and grocery store manager turned amateur sleuth Grace Harper. Grace is a member of an online group that investigates cold cases to see if they can solve the crimes. Twenty years ago, the Lovelorn Killer murdered seven women then disappeared before the police could catch him. The police say the killer is either in prison or dead but Grace believes he's been hiding in plain sight, still living in the neighborhoods he stalked, and she's determined to find him. Grace gets a little too close and ends up as the killers 8th victim. Annalisa is assigned to Grace's murder and with her personal connection to the case 20 years prior, Annalisa is determined to find the killer.
I've been having some real good luck with my mystery/thriller/suspense reads recently (knock on wood) and this book was no exception. I love a good serial killer book and this one hit all my soft spots - interesting killer, decades long mystery, tough female detective, high emotional stakes, and one bombshell of an ending.
I thought the structure of the book worked really well to enhance the overall reading experience. We are following 2 timelines - one is current day Annalisa and her investigation and the other is Grace's diary entries leading up to her death. Annalisa's perspective is a pretty standard police procedural mystery where her and her partner are going around and interviewing people and chasing down leads. Grace's diary entries, in contrast, are much more PI-leaning where she's following a lot of the same paths the police do, but she isn't so stuck with the rules and regulations so her investigation feels a little more flexible. I'd say the book is 2/3 Annalisa and 1/3 Grace so the diary entries act as nice little breaks from the typical police procedural narrative. I personally really like reading police procedural books but I know a lot of people find them sort of dry and rigid so I think adding in Grace's perspective can help immerse those readers in the story. This reads like a really good episode of a TV crime drama like Criminal Minds where there's an added layer of emotion from seeing Grace's efforts to catch the killer while we know the whole time that she'll end up dead. The writing style of both parts of the book also helped with the emotional impact. I think the usual narrative style for police procedurals is pretty dry and clinical to give the book that real 'detective-y' feel. In this case, however, the narrative style was more relaxed and familiar. It didn't read like a procedural at all, even in Annalisa's parts.
I absolutely adored the characters. I think a lot of times in these police procedural type mysteries, the detective character can come across as a little underdeveloped because usually they're super grumpy and broody for reasons that are only hinted at (but get revealed in later books in the series). In this case, however, Annalisa's past is pretty much laid out on the kitchen table for us so it really felt like we got to know her really well. The fact that the case was so close to her childhood and brought up some old, unresolved feelings really helped to deepen her character. I thought the supporting cast was also really interesting, but those characters did fall pretty flat for me. It felt like each side character was given one main personality trait and that's it. Of course, not every character can be really intricately developed, but it just felt like there was such a large gap in characterization between Annalisa and everyone else. I also think the reveals at the end would have had even more of an emotional punch if we got to know all the characters involved a little better. There's a romance side plot that was pretty intriguing and since it didn't get resolved in this book, I'm assuming it will continue on into the next book.
The ending was a bit of a miss for me but it comes down to personal preference. My main issue with the ending was that I was left with a bit too many questions for my liking (although the big main questions do get answered). It sort of felt like I had finished building something and had a few pieces left over where I know they should fit into what I just built but I don't really see where they should go. The book sort of made a point at the end that sometimes bad people just do bad things and that very well might be the answer to the questions I had left but it still felt like I was missing a few pages of explanation. We don't get a big villain monologue at the end which I think is where a lot of those smaller pieces would typically be smushed in. I personally am a fan of the villain monologue but I feel like I might be in the minority with that one. This is also the first police procedural where I teared up at the ending so that was an interesting experience. I apparently had become very attached to these characters so when the ending reveal came, it hit closer than I would have expected. I am glad that this is the first in a new series following Annalisa so I'll maybe get some closure down the line.
I thought the mystery thread and reveals were really well executed. My one little issue was that the key to solving the case was something one of the side characters noticed but never told anyone and thus our main characters (and, by proxy, the reader) didn't know about it so there was no real way for the reader to guess the outcome ahead of time. This one little detail ended up feeling really convenient and I wasn't sure why that character didn't say anything when they first noticed that detail. I did really like how the evidence built up during the whole book instead of having a bunch of dead ends in the investigation. Part of this, I'm sure, is because the case was very heavily investigated 20 years ago so a lot of those leads had already been investigated and found to lead nowhere. I really didn't see the last twist coming and I was honestly surprised that the book went there.
Overall, this was a really great read and I was invested right from the beginning. I really enjoyed the split POV and how the investigation developed. Annalisa was a great main character and the supporting cast was really interesting. The book did leave me wanting more details at the end but that is more of a personal preference and I didn't really feel like any of the main questions went unanswered. I'm looking forward to continuing on in this series in the future.
Thanks to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the ARC in exchange for review
Expected publication date is August 10, 2021.
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