A well-constructed serial killer thriller based on the supposition that there was another unknown man at the crime scene that Truman Capote wrote about in "In Cold Blood." Although his killers were guilty, the investigators and Capote missed the third man who actually committed the murders. When that man gets out of prison from another conviction, he never wants to go back to jail and knows that there could be evidence that would convict him now, with modern forensics and a confession to a priest. He sets out to eliminate those who could point to his guilt. It's a tightly-woven tale of the paranoia of a guilty man with a serial-killer mentality. It's tense, suspenseful, and filled with facts woven into fiction. It focuses on the fears we carry that we can never truly know the people in our lives, that what we believe and trust can get us killed. So close to reality that it leaves you questioning everything you know about everyone you know. Not since the Psycho shower scene and the final scene of Dressed to Kill have I been so disturbed by a story of a homicidal maniac. Excellent writing.

This is a well-written novel, five-star material, with characters who are unique and memorable, not the cardboard cutouts that can be typical of this genre. The "sociopath" niece is particularly interesting.

That said, I find Carlo the former priest supremely annoying, but entirely believable. I read this while in the throes of Influenza A, so maybe that's why everything about this novel annoyed me in spite of it being tautly crafted and richly imagined.

Of course the killer is an idiot. So many criminals have low IQ in common, along with the delusional belief that they know more than anyone else.

The story is engaging and it kept me turning pages, in spite of the mounting body count. Normally I boycott this genre because I hate crime stories, because my sister is a cold case, and I've wasted years of my life trying to solve it. Stupid narcissists and sociopaths kill and kill again and get away with it, and only in fiction do we get to see them taken down by bad^ss FBI agents (retired or otherwise).

We all know Carlo is dumb enough to open the door for the killer, but it just sent me over the edge all the same.

The plot twist at the end involving plastics (I'm trying to avoid a spoiler here) struck me as ridiculous. The canceled flights, the logistics of gaining a spot on a plane on this urgent mission to save Carlo the former priest. Hollywood and novels would not exist if not for human stupidity, I know. Romeo and Juliet would not exist if not for people making incredibly stupid decisions.

Ironically, this story is full of smart, clever people. The stupid ones drive the plot.

Someone prevent me from reading any more thrillers. No matter how masterfully they are written, I hate this genre.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the eARC. This is the second in the retired FBI agent
Brigid Quinn series I've read. I was a little nervous about reading it, because Truman Capote's In Cold Blood really freaked me out when I read it years ago.
The story features Jerry Beaufort, just released from jail after decades. He's trying to come to terms with this new world he finds himself in, terrified by DNA because of his involvement with the murder of the Walker family in Florida in 1959.
After learning how to navigate the Internet he eventually finds Carlo, Brigid's former priest husband, who supposedly has a written confession naming him as a participant in the Walker murders. At the time he was involved with the 2 men who were the main characters in Truman Capote's book.
He finds Carlo and a formidable opponent in Brigid, who will do anything to save her beloved husband.
It's a good book, but I couldn't shake the unease that lingered from In Cold Blood and it hampered my reading enjoyment a bit. I recommend it for readers who are not as wimpy as I am...

This is one of a series but the first I’ve read.

Brigid Quinn is a retired FBI agent married to an ex-Catholic priest who is on his second marriage. She is insecure in her role as wife. They live in Tucson.

We meet Jerry who is being released from prison in Mississippi after serving 30 years. Jerry worries about some evidence which, if discovered, could land him back in jail forever. He is in his 70’s. So, Jerry sets out to discover whether this evidence exists and, if so, who has it. Naturally, lots of mayhem ensues.

Eventually, Jerry’s search leads to Carlo and he arrives in Tucson. Although he’s not that bright, Jerry is sneaky and he’s a con so he befriends a woman in a bar, soon moving in with her to create a back story for himself. He then sets out to befriend Carlo in an attempt to learn whether he is in possession of the possible evidence. Brigid senses something “off” about Jerry but Carlo is clueless and invites Jerry to dinner anyway.

The author has combined the murders of the Cutter Family in Kansas, made famous by Truman Capote in his book, “In Cold Blood,” and that of the Walker Family, a similar unsolved crime in Florida around the same time. This portion of the book is only reason to read it as the life threatening situations created for the characters in order for them to narrowly escape, etc., are laughable. Maybe if Brigid were a retired librarian she would be completely clueless, but otherwise, no.

Case in point: If your husband were being held hostage thousands of miles away by a suspected murderer, would you call his phone and threaten him, calling him “A fat ass creep?” And so on.

Masterman revisits the famous murders that Truman Capote immortalized in In Cold Blood, posing the possibility of a third killer who was never caught. Brigid Quinn is a retired FBI agent, her husband, Carlo, a former prison chaplain. In an old box of CArlo’s things from his days at the prison there may be a record of the third killer in the Holcomb, Kansas murders. And now that Jerry Beaufort has been released form jail, he’s determined to track down the evidence that could easily put him back behind bar, or worse. This is such a unique plot that I couldn’t put the book down, and even began to question whether there may actually have been a real third killer that literally got away with murder