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call_me_ana's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
5.0
pkiwi's review against another edition
3.0
For anyone raising their eyebrows at me reading a thriller: it was a birthday gift (yay, books! :D).
I read it in Dutch, it was engaging though a little predictable. Quite obviously written for an audience either unfamiliar with general policing, long words or without the will to do a little thinking of their own: absolutely every difficult term and procedure was explained, sometimes in tedious and great length.
Also, I don't know about the English blurbs, but the Dutch proclaim this to be 'Hieronymus Bosch writes hell on earth'... well... dear journalist, I know some books which will melt your eyes out of your face if you think this book is by any stretch of the word 'gory' or 'horror'. No surprises there, unfortunately.
I loved Smoky Barett as a character though and might just pick up the first book of the series as light reading.
I read it in Dutch, it was engaging though a little predictable. Quite obviously written for an audience either unfamiliar with general policing, long words or without the will to do a little thinking of their own: absolutely every difficult term and procedure was explained, sometimes in tedious and great length.
Also, I don't know about the English blurbs, but the Dutch proclaim this to be 'Hieronymus Bosch writes hell on earth'... well... dear journalist, I know some books which will melt your eyes out of your face if you think this book is by any stretch of the word 'gory' or 'horror'. No surprises there, unfortunately.
I loved Smoky Barett as a character though and might just pick up the first book of the series as light reading.
zaina90's review against another edition
4.0
4.5
Gosh this one was way too dark, and heartbreaking too.
Gosh this one was way too dark, and heartbreaking too.
eatingwords's review against another edition
3.0
This book was definitely much better than the last one, which I was disappointed in (see also here).
The case that Smoky Barrett and her team are working on in this book had me hooked right from the start. It was terror on yet another level I just couldn't fathom to understand. But it had me wanting to read on and on well into the night until I was finished reading it and knew how this book ended.
The characters and relationships unfortunately fell kind of flat in this one. There's not many scenes where there would have been time for relationships to grow or characters to have more depth to them. It just wasn't possible within those few chapters.
Overall, I really enjoyed reading about the case, but it would have been great if the personal lives of Smoky and Co. would have been fleshed out more.
The case that Smoky Barrett and her team are working on in this book had me hooked right from the start. It was terror on yet another level I just couldn't fathom to understand. But it had me wanting to read on and on well into the night until I was finished reading it and knew how this book ended.
The characters and relationships unfortunately fell kind of flat in this one. There's not many scenes where there would have been time for relationships to grow or characters to have more depth to them. It just wasn't possible within those few chapters.
Overall, I really enjoyed reading about the case, but it would have been great if the personal lives of Smoky and Co. would have been fleshed out more.
lunaxcult's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.5
jessycat's review against another edition
challenging
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
thriller_chick's review against another edition
5.0
Best series and my favorite author. No other series has ever had me so into it from page one until the end over and over again. This is the epitome of what a thriller book should be!
novelesque_life's review against another edition
4.0
4 STARS
"For FBI Special Agent Smoky Barrett, the wedding of one of their own was cause for celebration. Until a woman staggered down the aisle, incoherent, emaciated, head shaved, and wearing only a white nightgown.
No one knows who she is or where she's come from - or why she's chosen to appear in a church filled with law enforcement agents. Then a fingerprint check determines that the woman has been missing for nearly eight years - that once she was someone's wife, someone's mother.and a cop. Imprisoning her in a dark cell, depriving her of any contact with the outside world, her enigmatic captor was a man she didn't know and who seldom spoke, who punished her only when she failed to follow his most basic instructions designed to keep her alive.
Cold, businesslike, seemingly indifferent to his victims, he's a predator with an M.O. as terrifyingly inscrutable as any Smoky has ever encountered. As she fits together the pieces of what remains of his victim's fractured life, a chilling picture emerges of a killer every bit as calculating, masterful, and professional as Smoky and the team she leads - a professional psychopath who doesn't take murder personally and never makes a mistake.
There's a reason he let one of his victims go free. And by the time Smoky pierces the darkness of his twisted mind, it may cost her more than she can bear to lose to escape. For a trap snapped closed the moment she took this case too much to heart." (From Amazon)
Loved the fourth book in this dark suspense-filled series.
"For FBI Special Agent Smoky Barrett, the wedding of one of their own was cause for celebration. Until a woman staggered down the aisle, incoherent, emaciated, head shaved, and wearing only a white nightgown.
No one knows who she is or where she's come from - or why she's chosen to appear in a church filled with law enforcement agents. Then a fingerprint check determines that the woman has been missing for nearly eight years - that once she was someone's wife, someone's mother.and a cop. Imprisoning her in a dark cell, depriving her of any contact with the outside world, her enigmatic captor was a man she didn't know and who seldom spoke, who punished her only when she failed to follow his most basic instructions designed to keep her alive.
Cold, businesslike, seemingly indifferent to his victims, he's a predator with an M.O. as terrifyingly inscrutable as any Smoky has ever encountered. As she fits together the pieces of what remains of his victim's fractured life, a chilling picture emerges of a killer every bit as calculating, masterful, and professional as Smoky and the team she leads - a professional psychopath who doesn't take murder personally and never makes a mistake.
There's a reason he let one of his victims go free. And by the time Smoky pierces the darkness of his twisted mind, it may cost her more than she can bear to lose to escape. For a trap snapped closed the moment she took this case too much to heart." (From Amazon)
Loved the fourth book in this dark suspense-filled series.