Thank you Hachette Audio for the ALC and Grand Central Publishing, #partner, for the finished copy of Flashback in exchange for my honest review.
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing / Hachette Audio
Published: June 25, 2024
Summary:
Kendra Michaels uses her heightened powers of deduction to draw out a serial killer who has not been seen or heard from in over fifteen years.
Chloe and Sloane Morgan were only children when their mother was the second victim of the Bayside Strangler. Now, after spending fifteen years trying to discover his identity, the sisters have suddenly vanished. Were they getting too close to the truth? The police consider their interest in the crime to be just a coincidence and have little motivation to pursue the cold case.
Armed with the box of photos, videos, police reports, and notes gathered by the sisters over the years—plus the extraordinary senses from being blind before recovering her sight via a revolutionary surgical procedure—Kendra follows the sisters’ trail of clues. Little does she realize that her search is about to unleash a long-dormant killer on San Diego. With help from government agent-for-hire Adam Lynch, Kendra must race to discover the identity of an infamous killer, not only to save the lives of the two sisters but also untold others.
My thoughts:
This is the 11th book in the Kendra Michaels series, a series that Iris Johansen co-writes with her son, Roy and I so enjoy this series. Kendra Michael is one of the most unique and fascinating characters I have ever met, and I love that she is always proving that nothing and no one will stop her from getting the bad guys.
This is another great installment in this series, however, if you are new to this series, I will say it does stand on its own pretty well. My only word of caution is that coming to this one first is that you have missed a ton of excellent character development, especially where Kendra and Adam Lynch are concerned, so if you really like this one, definitely go back and start at the beginning!
As is typical with these books, this is fast-paced and suspenseful with lots of action. I loved the cold-case angle – that is one of my favorite tropes and one that I don’t think we’ve seen used in this series yet. It’s easy to get caught up in the danger that Kendra finds herself in once she is on the case and with this one, she ends up stirring up a hornet’s nest by putting herself in a serial killer’s sight.
I loved the twists and turns this one took and I also enjoyed the continued character development we get along the way. I can’t wait to see what comes next in this series!
Audio thoughts:
To me, it’s a given I will listen to these books on audio, especially with Elisabeth Rodgers narrating them. She really has a knack for narrating her books – she gets the essence of her characters and stories. And she brings consistency to the series, using the same voice for each character so that no matter how many books it has been since you last picked up an Iris Johansen book, it’s like no time at all has passed. This consistency, especially with series, to me, makes all the difference!
Books in this series:
2. Sight Unseen
4. Night Watch
6. Double Blind
7. Hindsight
9. Killer View
11. Flashback
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