Author: Joanna Schaffhausen
Published: August 10th 2021 by Minotaur Books
Format: Kindle, Hardcover, 304 pages
Genre: Police Procedural
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for an opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: Detective Annalisa Vega #1
First Sentence: Do you remember the moment you realized you were going to die?
From the Publisher: The Lovelorn Killer murdered seven women, ritually binding them and leaving them for dead before penning them gruesome love letters in the local papers. Then he disappeared, and after twenty years with no trace of him, many believe that he’s gone for good.
Not Grace Harper. A grocery store manager by day, at night Grace uses her snooping skills as part of an amateur sleuth group. She believes the Lovelorn Killer is still living in the same neighborhoods that he hunted in, and if she can figure out how he selected his victims, she will have the key to his identity.
Detective Annalisa Vega lost someone she loved to the killer. Now she’s at a murder scene with the worst kind of déjà vu: Grace Harper lies bound and dead on the floor, surrounded by clues to the biggest murder case that Chicago homicide never solved. Annalisa has the chance to make it right and to heal her family, but first, she has to figure out what Grace knew—how to see a killer who may be standing right in front of you. This means tracing his steps back to her childhood, peering into dark corners she hadn’t acknowledged before, and learning that despite everything the killer took, she has still so much more to lose. (Minotaur)
My Opinion: The first two-thirds of the book was a disappointing muddle, then suddenly, the intensity picked up, leading to a mad scramble to the killer's identity -- which was too quick and abrupt. But with still ten percent of the book left, it did not make sense. Where was Joanna Schaffhausen going next?
An author shouldn't need that much time for family and boyfriend issues, so what did she have up her sleeve. Well, that would be a part I had figured all along was nothing but filler, a forgotten case the Grave Diggers were working. Which that too was tied up too quickly. Then there was one last thing. What was her father trying to tell her before his surgery? What was that one thing which will now upend her life, her family, and her career?
From the Publisher: The Lovelorn Killer murdered seven women, ritually binding them and leaving them for dead before penning them gruesome love letters in the local papers. Then he disappeared, and after twenty years with no trace of him, many believe that he’s gone for good.
Not Grace Harper. A grocery store manager by day, at night Grace uses her snooping skills as part of an amateur sleuth group. She believes the Lovelorn Killer is still living in the same neighborhoods that he hunted in, and if she can figure out how he selected his victims, she will have the key to his identity.
Detective Annalisa Vega lost someone she loved to the killer. Now she’s at a murder scene with the worst kind of déjà vu: Grace Harper lies bound and dead on the floor, surrounded by clues to the biggest murder case that Chicago homicide never solved. Annalisa has the chance to make it right and to heal her family, but first, she has to figure out what Grace knew—how to see a killer who may be standing right in front of you. This means tracing his steps back to her childhood, peering into dark corners she hadn’t acknowledged before, and learning that despite everything the killer took, she has still so much more to lose. (Minotaur)
My Opinion: The first two-thirds of the book was a disappointing muddle, then suddenly, the intensity picked up, leading to a mad scramble to the killer's identity -- which was too quick and abrupt. But with still ten percent of the book left, it did not make sense. Where was Joanna Schaffhausen going next?
An author shouldn't need that much time for family and boyfriend issues, so what did she have up her sleeve. Well, that would be a part I had figured all along was nothing but filler, a forgotten case the Grave Diggers were working. Which that too was tied up too quickly. Then there was one last thing. What was her father trying to tell her before his surgery? What was that one thing which will now upend her life, her family, and her career?
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