I would recommend this book for fans of “Criminal Minds”. It was almost like watching an episode of that TV show.
Several things kept this book from being more than a three star read for me. First of all, I am tired of the whole female FBI agent who is a major b***h premise. The heroine of this one, Tess Winnett, is the typical character who doesn’t play well with others and makes everyone angry as she goes about doing her job. Her excuse? She has to solve every crime, not matter what!
Laura Watson is the sole survivor when her family is slaughtered by the Family Man serial killer. Laura was just 5 years old when this happened and her life has moved on without too many major repercussions.
The premise of the story is a good one, with the accused serial killer nearing execution after committing numerous murders. But, when Winnett visits him in prison, he tells her that the last 3 families were not killed by him, but by another killer who is still at large.
The identity of the other killer became pretty obvious to me early on in the book, which ruined a little of the suspense for me. The author throws in several chapters that are basically the killer describing his pleasure at the crimes he has committed and I would recommend that anyone who is squeamish about this type of thing stay clear of this book.
The ending seemed very rushed to me. After hours of buildup, the last two chapters were just thrown out there. The explanation of the the Watson murders was very brief and unsatisfactory to me.
The narrator did a pretty good job, but I sped up the narration to get through the book. It became a little tedious after a while.