I’m usually late to the party on thriller series, so it was nice starting a series from the beginning right when it’s being published. While I figured out the responsible party as soon as this character was introduced, it was still a suspenseful crime thriller, which answered the main whodunit for this book but left you hanging for the bigger crime.
Olivia Rockwell, a criminal psychologist, who is still trying to come to terms with witnessing her own incarcerated father murder someone when Olivia was just a little girl, takes on the worst of the worst patients/criminals at the prison in Fog Harbor where no one can be trusted and everyone is always on edge. Her worst patient is Drake Devere, a serial killer who avoided the death penalty thanks to a previous deal and who has turned his previous crimes into a best-selling crime book series. Detective Will Decker has fled to the police force in Fog Harbor to try to get back some of his anonymity after a family scandal that is alluded to throughout the book. Suddenly, female employees at the prison start being found brutally murdered, and Olivia might be next. Olivia and Dec must fight their obvious chemistry to try to identify the killer before it’s too late.
This book, while enjoyable to read because I liked Olivia and Deck’s characters, definitely followed the detective crime thriller script, and if you’ve read a lot of these, it’s really not hard to figure out who is killing these women. But, that being said, while Olivia was rather naïve given her professional and personal background, I was still rooting for her to make it out alive. And I really like the partnership between Deck and JB, the fuddy-duddy older detective Deck is partnered with who keeps his secrets and watches his back even as he insults and teases him. While it’s obviously a secondary relationship to the Rockwell and Decker one actually named in the series title, it seems to be the most realistic and really creates a warmer tone to the book.
I also like that the author set herself up to possibly go several different directions with the future books in this series. I don’t want to give away the ending, but it was satisfying even with the cliffhangers. (Yes, plural.)
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from NetGalley and Bookouture in exchange for my honest review. It did not influence my opinion.