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A review by reading_rainy
The Hidden One by Linda Castillo
4.0
*3.5* This series continues to be engaging, intense, and also oddly heartwarming for all the brutal murders.
The set up is Painters Mill Police Chief Kate Burkholder leaves town to investigate a murder. The prime suspect is someone she's grown up with, and has strong emotions connected to him. I missed all the usual characters in this one, but mostly Tomasetti. There is a quite strength to him that balances Kate's somewhat reckless behavior. I really need at least one romantic scene with them, there are none in this book.
Yes, this story is a bit predictable, with Kate getting physically hurt at the end of every book, but I don't care.
What niggled at the back of my mind was the reshaping of Kate's childhood. Earlier books cover the horrors that happened to her at 14. This book attempts to show her as an almost normal, healthy teenager at 15. I can't imagine teenage Kate would have been able to recover so quickly when longtime readers know how her childhood abuse clung to every part of her adult life.
As a standalone, it was pretty good, but as part of the series, it didn't make sense. Other than that, I love these characters, and will continue to read the series until Kate and Tomasetti are in the old folks home, sitting in rocking chairs, hands clasped.
Big thanks to St. Martin's press, Linda Castillo and Netgalley for the ARC.
The set up is Painters Mill Police Chief Kate Burkholder leaves town to investigate a murder. The prime suspect is someone she's grown up with, and has strong emotions connected to him. I missed all the usual characters in this one, but mostly Tomasetti. There is a quite strength to him that balances Kate's somewhat reckless behavior. I really need at least one romantic scene with them, there are none in this book.
Yes, this story is a bit predictable, with Kate getting physically hurt at the end of every book, but I don't care.
What niggled at the back of my mind was the reshaping of Kate's childhood. Earlier books cover the horrors that happened to her at 14. This book attempts to show her as an almost normal, healthy teenager at 15. I can't imagine teenage Kate would have been able to recover so quickly when longtime readers know how her childhood abuse clung to every part of her adult life.
As a standalone, it was pretty good, but as part of the series, it didn't make sense. Other than that, I love these characters, and will continue to read the series until Kate and Tomasetti are in the old folks home, sitting in rocking chairs, hands clasped.
Big thanks to St. Martin's press, Linda Castillo and Netgalley for the ARC.