Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Published: May 4, 2021 (First published 2001)
Source: Publisher
Summary:
The past isn’t over….
An unspeakable act has ripped apart the idyllic town of Bakersville, Oregon, and its once-peaceful residents are demanding quick justice. But though a boy has confessed to the horrific crime, evidence shows he may not be guilty.
Officer Rainie Conner, leading her first homicide investigation, stands at the center of the controversy. It’s hitting too close to home, bringing back her worst nightmares, threatening to expose her secret sins. But with the boy’s life at stake, she won’t let anything stop her from finding the real killer.
With the help of FBI profiler Pierce Quincy, Rainie comes closer to a deadly truth than she can imagine. Because out there in the shadows a man watches her and plots his next move. He knows her secrets. He kills for sport. He’s already brought death to Bakersville and forever shattered the community. But what he has really come for is Rainie – and he won’t leave until he has destroyed her….
My thoughts:
I’ve been a fan of Lisa Gardner for quite some time now, falling in love with her writing with her Detective D.D. Warren series. Her FBI Profiler series is one where I was introduced to the later books because they crossed over with the D.D. Warren books and because I really liked them, I decided to start at the beginning. And as luck would have it, Brilliance Audio is bringing them back periodically…and I am definitely taking advantage.
This is the second book in Gardner’s Quincy and Rainie series and the first one where they actually work together. And let me just say…this one was a tough read. It’s about a school shooting and it just so happens that it was the second book I had recently read that dealt with gun violence and it never gets easier. It’s the type of book that you read, or in my case, listen to with your heart thumping a mile a minute and you just cannot fathom how these shootings continue to happen – and this book was originally written in 2001 and yet events like this are still happening today, twenty years later and nothing has seems to have changed! Why is that?
But back to the book. This one really kept me engaged and on my toes as Rainie and Quincy work to figure out just what is going on. I loved having both their perspectives on this case and I loved that they work together on this one. I also loved the balance between the case work and their personal lives. This one delves more into their backgrounds and who they are and I really appreciated that. As someone who is a serial series reader, I love character development and we get a lot here. Both Rainie and Quincy are complicated, complex characters and I loved delving more into their pasts.
I am loving this series and am looking forward to picking up the next book soon. Sometimes it’s nice to pick up an older book and see how a series came to be…don’t you agree?
Audio thoughts:
This book translated well onto audio and I thought Teri Schnaubelt did a great job with the narration. This was a tough book due to the content and I thought she did a great job, infusing just the right amount of emotion and tension into her voice as needed. Her pacing was good and overall I enjoyed listening.
Books in this series:
1 The Perfect Husband
2 The Third Victim
3 The Next Accident
4 The Killing Hour
5 Gone
6 Say Goodbye
6.5 The 4th Man
7 Right Behind You
