Day: March 17, 2020

For once, the tag line of “pulse-racing” and “heart-stopping” is 100% accurate. I could not put this book down. What a bang-up job for the first in a new series!

As always, in an initial entry to a series, there is a lot to unpack. Right off the bat, we meet the main characters, Dan Lockhart and Lexi Green, whose jobs (DI and clinical psychologist, respectively) bring them together on both a personal and, later, professional level.

She is his therapist as he works his way through all sorts of issues, from PTSD (military service) to his missing wife (vanished, still missing). He brings her on to the case at hand to try to analyze the perpetrator to help them narrow down suspects. She jumps in and gets more than she bargained for (no spoilers).

I thought the introduction of the two was very smooth, as was the background for both of them, as well as for the rest of the Major Investigation Team (MIT). Sometimes introductions can weigh down the plot, as the author wants to build a solid foundation for the rest of the series. This author manages to build that foundation while keeping the plot skipping along at a rapid pace.

The crimes in this book are unique and chilling. There were just enough hints dropped that I found myself wildly guessing at “whodunit” early on, but kept changing my mind as I proceeded to read more. I appreciated how the author gave us a real insight into the killer’s motivations. There was almost as much background for the killer as there were for the lead investigators.

Very often, the perpetrator gets a perfunctory mention of past trauma or personal history that sets them on their murderous path. In this book, however, we get treated to a real deep dive into the world the killer inhabits. It makes the story so much more well-rounded.

The investigation unfolds in an entirely natural way, and I thought the author did an excellent job of illustrating how police “connect the dots,” as well as allowing the members of the MIT to disagree (which often happens in real life). The plotting was astute and well-written and did have me turning pages late into the night to get to the resolution. I was not disappointed!

Although this is the first in a new series, there is a brief mention of a character from another series by the same author (I guess to denote a tie-in?). It’s pretty inconsequential to the plot overall, but it does illustrate that the author is working within a known and detailed world, which makes it an overall more enjoyable read. I will absolutely be looking for the next books in this series!

Author Bio

Chris Merritt is a British author whose crime thrillers combine psychology, suspense, and characters you care about.

All his novels are set in London, where he lives. He began writing fiction in 2014, after previous careers as a diplomat, based in Iraq and Jerusalem, and later as a psychologist working with victims and perpetrators of crime. He specialised in treating Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), which sparked his interest in telling stories about how people cope when faced with extreme adversity.

Now he spends most of his time writing novels and drinking coffee while *thinking* about writing novels. When he’s not writing, he loves climbing and playing basketball.