This is the second book in the Angel Blondeaux series and follows the FBI agent as she is in the middle of investigating the serial killed dubbed The Blindfold Killer. The Killer, who calls himself Roman, calls Angel when he disposes of a new body - or sometimes just to chat. However, as Roman increases the frequency of his kills as well as the severity of his taunts to the police, Angel needs to decide what risks she can take to catch the killer before he catches her.
TW/CW: domestic abuse, sexual assault
While this is the second book in the series, as with most police procedural mysteries, it can be read as a standalone. I really loved the first book in the series because it was an extremely compelling read that did a great job introducing us to Angel as a character. There are a few references to the events of the first book that would be very confusing to readers if they hadn't read book 1, but those references did not impact the way the mystery contained in this book played out. This book was a solid read, but it did feel pretty much like a standard police procedural/serial killer mystery where as book 1 was more unique and compelling for me. I was pleased that the end of this book hinted at a return, of sorts, to the world/mystery of book 1 so I'm looking forward to continuing on in the series.
I really liked how we're dropped into the middle of this investigation, right when they find the 5th body. I know a lot of readers find the pacing of police procedurals to be slow, and I think Findorff starting the story when he did was a great choice. It also allowed us to get a pretty quick info-dump of the crimes because Angel and the other investigators were comparing this fifth victim to the others basically by listing off characteristics (no eyes, throat cut, wearing a hospital gown, etc). The pacing from there was pretty standard for a mystery book where the police were gathering clues, making some breakthroughs, etc. The stakes and tension are raised a number of times in the first 25% of the book which I also think makes it a very engaging read. I think the calls that the killer makes to Angel work well to instantly bump up the tension and remind the reader what the main plot of the book is. So often, these calls come in when Angel is having more personal conversations or other lulls in the main action plot of the book and just when the reader is relaxing - a call from the killer. It might come off as a little gimmicky to some readers, but I really enjoyed that aspect.
I loved how dynamic and fleshed out the different characters are and how they are so different from each other. We get, of course, multiple characters who are members of law enforcement - FBI and local police - and there's always a chance that those characters could be written very similarly. However, Findorff does a great job writing each character so well that they really stand out from the crowd. Each character has a distinctive voice and attitude that is consistent throughout the book. The story is told primarily through 2 POVs but there is a single chapter from the killer's POV. I really liked the main 2 perspectives and thought they were a great choice to give us a well-rounded view of the investigation. The one chapter from the killer's perspective I found to be unnecessary because it was only done once. I wish we had gotten more of those chapters as a sort of unnamed 3rd narrator. I could see the point of the one chapter (discussed in the next paragraph), but since it was only one chapter it sort of felt a little gimmicky and like an easy way to give some info to the reader. I really love when detective mysteries have the killer's POV in them and I think this is the type of mystery that would have benefited from that extra layer of tension. I think this point is especially true with serial killer mysteries because usually, so much of the serial killer's actions are based on their own personal history so seeing their actions or hearing their thoughts would have been an interesting character study.
Where this story lost some points for me was in the actual mystery but it is just a personal preference. I strongly prefer my mysteries to have a lot of red herrings or dead ends for the investigators to come across. This book, in comparison, was pretty much zero to prime suspect. At the beginning, they had no suspects, then the killer revealed somethings about himself on a call to Angel and suddenly they have a suspect that fits all of those parameters and that is who they're pretty much focused on for the rest of the book. I would have liked some more variation in the suspect pool or maybe having multiple suspects that could all fit the criteria so the police have to investigate multiple leads. I think the aforementioned single chapter from the killer's POV tried to do this a bit with giving the reader some nuggets of information that Angel and the police didn't have yet so the reader could start to be suspicious of one of the characters we already met. However, it was not done consistently enough to be impactful, at least for me and my reading experience. I did think the actual line of investigation was well done and there were a few twists that I didn't see coming and thought were interesting. But there weren't any reveals that really surprised or shocked me. Along these same lines, I felt like it was very obvious who the killer was once we saw them on-page so at that point the fun in the mystery turned from the investigation and red herrings to more of a thriller where the reader knows more information than the police so I'm reading mostly to see if Angel will catch the killer or not. I think this more thriller-leaning part of the book came in a bit earlier (about the 60% mark) than it does in most other detective fiction stories so, again, my expectations were a little thrown and didn't quite land for me. I wanted a more winding investigation thread and then a bunch of action at the end (which is what I felt we got with the first book in the series - Blood Parish).
Overall, I really enjoyed this second installment following Angel and I will most definitely be continuing in the series. I loved the characters, tension, and pacing but the mystery was a little too straightforward for my liking.
Thanks to BookSirens and the author for the ARC - I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Expected publication date is January 14, 2022
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