"If you like Dexter, you'll love this! In the quiet backwoods of Sharp County, retired detective Hilrey Higgins has spent years burying his past—both as a lawman and as something far darker. But when a new killer emerges, mimicking the gruesome precision of his own long-buried crimes, Hilrey is forced back into the game."
So like any good comp title, the Dexter comparison really drew me in to pick up this book. I was a bit on the fence because while I love the Dexter TV show, I had some significant issues with the book (review here, if you're interested). So I was pleased when the comparison was more on the subject matter in the book and not so much on the tone of the writing. I do think the description above makes the book seem like it will have a darker tone than what we actually get on page. I overall had a good time and found the characters as well as the mystery plot to be well developed.
Hilrey's character is obviously the center of this read and I think he was a really interesting character to follow. I did find the first chapter or two to be a big info-dumpy with his history - both professionally as well as his past crimes. After those first few pages, however, we get right into the current narrative and it was smooth sailing from there. I loved that we got the details of Hilrey right from the beginning so this is one of those reads where it wasn't so much of a mystery of what happened in his past, but more so of when the other characters will find out. Hilrey's character was well developed and had a very distinct voice which I always like in these type of reads. While Hilrey was retired, he obviously hasn't lost his detective instincts and so following him for this investigation was interesting and I loved seeing the contrast between his history and the newer methods that are used now. The other characters in this read are also well developed and I got a really good sense of all of their characters. Since this is book 1 in a series, I hope we get to see more from these side characters in future books.
The mystery of the current murder that Hilrey and Dakota are investigating was really interesting and well plotted. We get a lot of bodies dropping and a lot of different leads for our investigation team to follow. We get a lot of leads especially when connecting the current murders with crimes in the past and I think Alman does a great job of leading the reader through these investigation points without anything feeling overly dry or repetitive. Because we had so many victims in only a little over 300 pages, I did find myself not remembering the names of each victim. So by the end of the book, when they are going over each of the crimes and how they are connected, I couldn't really remember specifically which one they were talking about unless they noted specific details of the kill or something specific to each victim (like their job). I know that the character name issue is something I have and might not be an issue for all readers.
Alman does not shy away from the kills in this book - both in number and severity. The horror aspect comes in mostly from the brutality of the kills but the actual descriptions and certainly leans into a body horror sort of descriptions. The kills reminded me a lot of the kills in the Hannibal TV show where the bodies are mutilated and displayed in certain ways. The descriptions of these scenes is given in a sort of clinical way and not overly drawn out.
This is being listed as book 1 in The Campfire Murders series, I wasn't sure how it would end. There are a couple ending options that this sort of story would naturally conclude with and it somehow manages to touch on each of them. This does not end up in a cliff hanger, which is one of the ending options I was worried it would be. It ends in a similar way to most police procedural series where the case is solved but there are other plot points that are left open for the next book in the series.
Thanks to NetGalley and Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op for the ARC.
Publication date was February 26, 2025.
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