When the fourth woman turns up dead, detectives A.L. McKittridge and Rena Morgan know they have a budding disaster on their hands. With each woman murdered exactly the same way, with a ten-day spacing in between, they’re in a race against time to figure out the killer’s pattern before he strikes again.
Although this is a romantic suspense, it’s quite a while before any romance shows up in the book, with a potential future victim of the killer identified and becoming a love interest for A.L. We do get to know both A.L. (we never do find out what the initials stand for) and Rena, pretty well, with their home lives deeply examined.
The thing that bothers me here is something I might be wrong about… but I’m finding it deeply weird that with an actual serial killer on what amounts to be a spree, two small-town homicide cops are basically handling the case on their own, with a bit of technical support from the state police. Don’t the FBI get involved in this sort of thing? Wouldn’t there be an entire team of people all over this, rather than A.L. and Rena having to run down every little lead with just the two of them? It seems negligent and frankly, unrealistic.
My favourite character in the book was Tess, the potential victim, a fierce, unapologetic woman coming to terms with a new disability (she’s an amputee). Her anger at the inherent unfairness of what happened to her felt like the most realistic thing in the book, but she was introduced way too late for me to really buy into the romantic sub-plot between her and A.L.
There are a few too many side plots going on and not enough in-depth dive into the killer’s psyche (where was the criminal profiler who should have been on the case?) We never did get an explanation for why the ten-days thing, or the obsession with the number ten, or what got him started on the list he chose his victims from. I was left with just too many questions unanswered, and I’m disappointed, because this had such an intriguing premise. I feel like it’s just wasted potential. Two stars.
Disclaimer: I received a review copy of this title via NetGalley.