(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)

When the two strangers turn up at Rowena Cooper's isolated Colorado farmhouse, she knows instantly that it's the end of everything. For the two haunted and driven men, on the other hand, it's just another stop on a long and bloody journey. And they still have many miles to go, and victims to sacrifice, before their work is done.
For San Francisco homicide detective Valerie Hart, their trail of corpses - women abducted, tortured and left with a seemingly random series of objects inside them - has brought her from obsession to the edge of physical and psychological destruction. And she's losing hope of making a breakthrough before that happens.
But the slaughter at the Cooper farmhouse didn't quite go according to plan. There was a survivor, Rowena's ten-year-old daughter Nell, who now holds the key to the killings. Injured, half-frozen, terrified, Nell has only one place to go. And that place could be even more terrifying than what she's running from.

*3.5 stars*

As the opening book of a series, this was quite a well-developed story. Valerie's character is well-written (I do like that she was flawed, but past the point of believability!) and some of the minor characters work really well too. The pace of the story is quick, keeping the reader on edge for most of the book. The murders were grisly but not overdone. The relationship between Valarie and Nick (such as it was) was cool enough without trying to do too much.

However, and there is always a catch to great reviews, there was one really big thing I had trouble with. There were times when it seemed like the author decided that the reader needed to know what the clues were - it was like every single mundane thing that was overly described was somehow related to the murders. It was just too easy to see, once you had figured out what was going on with that style of writing.

Overall, a good thriller that could have used just a little more polish...


Paul
ARH