The last book I read from this author was Night Owl, which I really enjoyed, so I wanted to check out another title. The premise here in intrigued me; a criminal mastermind pulls off seemingly impossible murders and the FBI brings in an agent with a background as a stage magician/illusionist to help figure out how the crimes were committed and track down the killer. I don't want to get too into the details of the plot, because I think Tornado Dodger would really like this book and I don't want to spoil anything for her... but I really loved this book and highly recommend it for anyone who's looking for a slightly fresh take on a procedural story. It still had the usual tropes (FBI trying to track down a killer who's one step ahead of them), but the stage magic elements add a really interesting new layer to it, where the protagonist (Jessica) talks through with the forensic team her theories of how the crimes could have been committed, using her knowledge of misdirection and illusion.

The only part of the book that I wasn't wild about was the end, which seemed pretty abrupt. At first I thought it was going to be a cliffhanger leading into the next book but based on the premise of the second book in the series, it doesn't seem that's the case... it's more than this narrative just wraps up really quickly. And by really quickly I mean there's less than 25 or so pages between the climax and the end of the book, where everything gets wrapped up quickly. Given the amount of detail and build-up that had been put into the narrative to that point, I was hoping for a bit of a more satisfying ending that played out a bit more. But that's a relatively small criticism of an otherwise really engaging book. I'm definitely going to read the next one in the series and think I may have found a new mystery/thriller author to follow.

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Created May 19, 2024 at 1:22pm • Submit your own review...