This mystery is the second book in the Riley Fisher series follows Riley as she starts her new position as an FBI agent in Des Moines, Iowa. In Des Moines, a serial attacker known as the Sin Eater has struck again - putting more pressure on the investigators to catch the perpetrator. Riley hits the ground in her new position running after being tasked with investigating threats against the city's newly elected female governor. But when the Sin Eater investigation, the governor threats, and Riley's own partner all converge, there might be more to this new position than Riley expected.
As usual with police procedural series, it isn't strictly necessary to read the books in order as the main investigation plots are self-contained. I did read the first book in the series - The Fields - and really enjoyed it (review linked here) - however, I think this would work very well as a stand alone. There is a pretty large gap of time between books 1 and 2, so even the personal life details we get in book 1 have changed significantly by book 2.
Young writes in the acknowledgements section at the end that this was her quarantine book and the inspiration certainly comes through. We get a good amount of the political climate of the time coming into play and I liked the political suspense/thriller aspect which was also an aspect I enjoyed in the first book in the series. I think Young does a good job of balancing the political threads in with the more standard police procedural plot lines. I would not be one to pick up a straight up political thriller, but I enjoy the parts we get in this read.
Along with the political aspect, we also societal tensions around women and their 'place' in society. There is a lot of language around women knowing their place, and being punished if they step out of that very restrictive role that some men think they should be in. Also, we do see a number of Sin Eater attacks on page, and the viciousness of these attacks is not held back. For me, these parts were a pretty visceral reading experience, but I could see someone with personal experience in these types of situations having a hard time reading them.
I loved the Sin Eater investigation and was very invested in that plot line. I found it the perfect amount of twisty and it had a lot of areas for Riley and the team to look into. Riley - and thus the narrative - bounces between the Sin Eater investigation and the governor protection plot but I found myself much more invested in the Sin Eater side of things. I found the narrative style to feel a little disjointed at times when switching between the two plots. I think this was probably done on purpose as Riley finds herself equally torn between these areas of her job, but it did take me out of the reading experience just a bit.
We get multiple POVs and I think Young does a fantastic job at using the different POVs to deepen the story. We get Riley, the governor, and a character close to the Sin Eater plot. At first, I wasn't sure if the multiple POVs were necessary since Riley was investigating both other plots, but by the end I think each POV helped bring all the moving pieces together. The ending resolution is a little complex, but I think it would feel very messy and out of left field if we were only following Riley. Having the other POVs help give the reader some background information to give context to some of Riley's investigation threads which helped me feel like the ending reveal was more grounded than it might have otherwise felt.
Overall, this was another good procedural/mystery/political thriller read from Young and I look forward to reading on in the Riley Fisher series.
Thanks to NetGalley and Flatiron Books for the ARC. Expected publication date is February 13, 2024.
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