This was a good book because it was interesting. The characters are decently developed. I can't wait to find out what happens in the next book.

I hadn't read the other books in the series but I decided to read Snakes and Ladders to get a feel for the main character. Ziba MacKenzie is a profiler who has dealt with the worst of criminals. Unfortunately for her, one of the people who she helped put in prison wants to talk to her about a current case. Despite her misgivings about dealing with Vernon Sange she agrees to talk with him. She doesn't get much relevant information but gets the sense that Sange still has plans to make her life miserable in the future. The path of the case twists and turns, eventually leading to an unlikely culprit. The end of the book leaves the door open for book 4. I enjoyed the book and plan on going back to read books 1 and 2.

A competent and engaging thriller, Snakes and Ladders by Victoria Selman follows profiler Ziba MacKenzie as she is forced to confront a monster from her past to catch a killer. The book opens with Ziba giving a talk to FBI trainees, and thinking about her late husband Duncan, when the talk is rather abruptly interrupted as she is urgently recalled to the UK where police need her help to find the so called Pink Rose Killer, who has been killing and mutilating young women. While she is keen to be of assistance, she is understandably disturbed to learn that the reason for her recall is that Dr Vernon Sange, a man she helped to put behind bars for the murder of at least a dozen people claims to know the identity of the killer, and will speak only to her. Thus begins a tense game of cat and mouse as the two square off against each other , and since nothing is ever simple, Ziba knows that in order to get the information she needs, she will have to subject herself to his mind games.
I picked up this book not realising it was the third in an ongoing series, but am pleased to say it reads perfectly well as a stand alone. The author does a good job of providing the background from the previous books in a way that does not interfere with the flow of the tense and dramatic story she is telling , and I liked the character enough to add the earlier books to my want to read list. There are numerous twists and turns to keep a reader hooked, and plenty of red herrings to keep them guessing. The scenes between Ziba and Sange were fascinating , as the two locked horns and tried to outmaneuver one another, and I found Sange's character both disturbing and strangely beguiling.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

I didnt know that this book was the 3rd in a series.
You can tell there is one or 2 before it as jts a constant theme throughout the book.
I was excited to read this. However i found it very long and to be honest a bit boring. It all seemed a bit stagnant. Never moving forward.
I had no idea where snakes and ladders fits in to this.
Not for me unfortunately

There a lot of helpful reviews already for this serial killer thriller. I can only add that this is for you if you like this genre.

I really appreciate the copy for review!

Title: Snakes and Ladders
Author: Victoria Selman

Rating: 3 stars

Initial thoughts
When I requested Snakes and Ladders I had no idea, this s the third book in the series but some reviewers wrote it held up as a standalone novel. There are lots of hints about previous books so I couldn’t enjoy the story as much as I thought I would.

Ziba Mackenzie is a profiler. Her job is to help the police catch serial killers. Her latest case is about a killer who removes the victims certain body parts and leaves in its place a single pink rose. There is one man who says can help but is only willing to talk to Ziba. Dr. Vernon Sange is a deranged killer and Ziba put him behind bars.

Characters
Ziba Mackenzie is a weird woman. I didn’t particulary like her. She is supposed to be a hardened profiler but she makes the same mistakes with Sange over and over again. Sange reads people on a professional level but Ziba just starts second guessing everything she says or does instead of making Sange squirm.
Dr. Vernon Sange is like Hannibal Lecter without the eating-body-parts thing. He is definitely the most interesting character in the book. He is a manipulative, evil sociopath but a genius one. Always gets what he wants.

All in all I liked the story enough. Selman knows how to build tension, how to twist the story so it doesn’t become boring. I only regret I didn’t know it was the third so I didn’t start with the first book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy,

* spoiler alert ** 3.5


A one sitting read for this one.
I've read one of the previous books,and fell straight back into the office politics of this one.
It's fast paced,has a decent bad guy,and a creepy enough killer that you get to see in flashbacks.
I was a little bored by the constant telephone tennis with Jack.
Really do have to wonder about these people who fall in love with serial killers,but this book did a good job of showing how you'd track someone down who anonomously writes to a prison.
It's clever stuff.
It's set up nicely now for the next book in series.(less)

My thanks to Amazon Publishing U.K. for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Snakes and Ladders’ by Victoria Selman in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you also to The Pigeonhole as I also participated in their group read event for this title and was able to share my thoughts and comments with other readers as we read the daily chapters. I was disciplined throughout and didn’t read ahead in order to not spoil the fun.

This is the third in her series of police procedurals featuring profiler Ziba MacKenzie. I hadn’t read either of her previous novels but enough background was provided so I didn’t feel lost.

As the novel opens a serial killer is terrorising London, removing a body part from each of his victims and leaving in its place a single pink rose. He has been nicknamed the Pink Rose Killer (PRK) and has just sent a Ripper-style letter to Jack Wolfe, ‘Daily Telegraph’ journalist and Ziba’s close friend.

Dr Vernon Sange, a multiple murderer currently in a U.K. prison awaiting extradition to the USA, claims to know the culprit’s identity. However, he’ll only talk to profiler Ziba MacKenzie, the woman responsible for putting him away. Ziba is currently in the States teaching at the FBI academy in Quantico but she is summoned home to meet with Sange.

This was a very engaging police procedural that kept me and my fellow Pigeons guessing as to Sange’s motivations and the identity of the PRK. Lots of twists and turns.

Ziba was an intriguing character, tough yet vulnerable. I enjoyed the links to the Classics that informed the case and found it well plotted.

Victoria Selman clearly is an admirer of Thomas Harris as like Dr. Hannibal Lecter, Sange is a charming, sophisticated, attractive, and highly intelligent opponent. The sparring between Sange and Ziba was very reminiscent of ‘The Silence of the Lambs’, which is cited in the publicity material.

I am addicted to crime shows featuring profilers and so really enjoyed this. I already have her two previous novels in the series waiting on my Kindle and look forward to catching up with Ziba’s past cases.

I have read the other books in this series which I enjoyed greatly. I was looking forward to this and wasn't disappointed. Full of tension and a great protagonist, this kept me at the edge of my seat. Not a dull moment to be found in this book. I'm looking forward to reading more.

this book started slowly and then gradually got my attention. strong main character and the skill in profling was interesting to me. I never like the chapters with the killer interspersed unless the author and there is only one or two makes them more human while their actions being monstrous. not here. it was overall a good read and i would read more with the main character, the ending left room for a series

This is the third in the Ziba MacKenzie series and each book is even better than the previous book. They are all extremely violent, psychological thrillers, with a deeply disturbing and even more disturbing characters.
I have enjoyed reading each and everyone of them. I look forward to reading the next one in the series.
Highly recommended.
With thanks to Netgalley, Pigeonhole and the publishers for the Arc,

Fantastic novel. This is the first book of Victoria’s I’ve read but am immediately going to rectify that and read the first 2 Ziba books (and hopefully the 4th will be out soon). Great story development throughout

A brilliant roller coaster of a read from the beginning, full of twists and turns and I was gripped from the very first page.

The characters were interesting and I can thoroughly recommend this book.

Thank you to Netgalley and Amazon Publishing for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

The third book of the Ziba MacKenzie series - Snake and Ladders covers the hottest topic of the moment....serial killers. Dr. Vernon Sange is in prison but he says he knows who the PRK murderer is. Picture Ziba as the Clarice to Dr. Sange's Hannibal Lector.

This is a fun series and Ziba is a fun lead character to read. This book gave me nightmares for a few days...so I supposed that means it's a five star read.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Snakes and Ladders is a superb serial killer thriller by Victoria Selman. Well worth the read! Look forward to more from her.

I enjoyed this book, the short chapters mean that it is punchy and rattles along at a quick pace, which matched the urgency with which Ziba and her team have to find the killer. It is the third book in the Ziba MacKenzie series, but it can be read as a stand-alone, I haven’t read the first two and it didn’t spoil my enjoyment of this one. Ziba is a well drawn, well rounded character and generally I liked her, although I preferred the character of the love interest Jack. I expect the will they, won’t they, nature of their relationship to continue in future books and I hope they do eventually get it together, hopeless romantic that I am!

The plot is reminiscent of the Silence of the Lambs, but set on British soil. At times it was a bit too close to Harris’ book for me, but it was different enough to keep me reading. I liked that the book focused on a profiler as opposed to a police officer, but I would have perhaps preferred a little more insight into her profiling. I did find it really interesting that Sange was American, perhaps we don’t like to think that the UK can produce serial killers of his ilk!

Overall I enjoyed the book and will now read the first two in the series.

Silence of the lambs was and is one of my favorite movies of all time! I was super intrigued to read this since it was compared to a classic; however, it fell short for me. The story was a little boring for me. There was too much thinking dialogue with Ziba and herself. There wasn't enough action to keep me going. I liked the story and the puzzles that needed to be solved, but in the end it just left me hanging. This is a serial killer investigation type of story. There was nothing suspenseful that made me keep turning the pages.

Thank you to NetGalley for a Kindle ARC of Snakes and Ladders.

I didn't know this was the third book in the series but Snakes and Ladders held up as a standalone.

I love serial killer mysteries, more so if the protagonist is female so I was excited when my request was approved.

Ziba Mackenzie is a highly respected profiler responsible for catching the notoriously charming serial killer Dr. Vernon Sange.

When a series of ritualistic murders brings Ziba into the investigation, she is tasked to speak to Dr. Sange, who seems to have unforeseen knowledge of the murders before they occur and will only speak to the woman who caught him.

Is he working with an accomplice on the outside? Is he orchestrating the murders?

As Ziba struggles with the loss of her husband from two years ago, and trying not to fall under the charming spell of Dr. Sange, she will use her wits and skills to suss out a killer terrorizing a community and eluding law enforcement.

I liked Ziba, but I didn't love her. I wanted to like her more. I can't quite put my finger on why I didn't like her more.

She was smart, competent, capable, but she spent far too much time making snarky comments in her head about an annoying superior. At first, it was funny; then it became redundant.

I also didn't like all the time she spent vacillating between her feelings for Wolfie and Sange's diabolical manipulation of her emotions.

Yes, he's diabolical, and she's human, so he has the upper hand, but I felt it was too easy the way he undermined her during their interviews.

I would think she would know a little better on how to handle him, considering she did catch him.

I also think the novel could have used a tighter edit, cut about 50 pages, to heighten tension and increase suspense, of which there wasn't much.

The writing was good, and there was decent character development on Ziba. I felt I understood her even though I didn't read the first two books.

I liked the parts when she reminisced about her childhood and her father, and how she wished she and her mother had a stronger, tighter bond.

I would recommend Snakes and Ladders to anyone interested in a serial killer mystery.

The third in the series that I have read. Great psychological thriller. Lots of twists and turns that will keep you enthralled.

This was another sterling piece of crime fiction by Victoria Selman.. .full of dark and gruesome serial killer fabulousness, and the police profiler trying to unravel the answer in a race against time!