Do przeczytania tej książki zachęcił mnie opis na okładce. Zapowiadała się zachęcająco. Fakt, że po przeczytaniu kilku stron chce się czytać dalej. Jest szybka akcja, dużo trupów i oczywiście tajemniczy morderca, który podaje się za syna Charlesa Mansona. Jego ataki są niespodziewane i w sumie nic ich ze sobą nie łączy.
Nadia Stafford była kiedyś policjantką. Teraz jest na emeryturze i zajmuję się pensjonatem. Dziś, żeby dorobić stoi po drugiej stronie - jest płatną zabójczynią. Ów morderca o pseudonimie Helter Skelter zaczyna zagrażać jej interesom i innych płatnych zabójców. Są zmuszeni ruszyć jego śladem. Zaczyna się polowanie na seryjnego zabójcę. Okazuje się, że to jeden z nich.
Czytało się dosyć ciężko. Niby książka ma coś w sobie, ale czasami była nudna. Przyjemnie, ale bez rewelacji.

This is the fourth book in Kelley Armstrong's Rockton series, so to completely appreciate, the characters, plot and the town of Rockton, you need to read the previous three books: City of the Lost, A Darkness Absolute and This Fallen Prey. 

Kelley Armstrong is back with another Rockton book and this time is seems like Rockton's secret may be out:

The town of Rockton is supposed to be a secret, but there are things that need to be done to protect the residence. This means Casey approaching her own estranged sister to help one of their residences that was injured badly in a gun fight, but bringing her there has to be a secret, as that is how Rockton survives. However, word seems to have gotten out about Rockton, when a US Marshal shows up demanding one of the residences. Casey and Dalton have to figure out no only who he is after, stop him from taking them but how the Hell did he find out where Rockton was located. Nothing is ever boring in a town full of not only victims but criminals too, many of whom will stop at nothing to make sure the US Marshal isn't after them.

I always have high hopes for this series and have enjoyed every book so far, but I will say that this is my least favourite book in the series. I found that the beginning was very exciting with the Marshal sniffing around town, and trying to figure out who he is there to take back south, but then the middle really slowed things down and then bang the ending was faced paced again. I guess for me I think that the middle just felt like a lot of filler and no substance. I wish a certain event had not taken place so quickly and there was more of a cat and mouse game to be played. When I have read other books in this series, I never wanted to put the book down. It was always I'll just read one more chapter one more page to see what happened next, where this book I was okay with putting it down.

I really liked the Marshal aspect within this book, I think it was really clever and why wouldn't some of the residence within Rockton have people coming to look for them. Some of them have committed horrible crimes. It was really interesting to see how the residence of Rockton reacted to the knowledge that there was a Marshal hunting one of them down. I know there are the main players within Rockton that we have readers have gotten to know from the previous book but you really don't know everyone, so it was nice to see some new residences show their faces. 

I will say that the addition of April, Casey's estranged sister, to the town and story was just brilliant by Armstrong. I'm so happy that she found a way to bring her to Rockton and to have her and Casey interact with each other, and man is there some comic relief in there. It also shines more of light on how Casey was brought up which does round her out more as a character.

So we're four books in and this is my least favourite of the bunch, however, does that mean this is a bad book? No, I just don't think it lived up to the previous three. I still love this series and characters and totally recommend this series to people, all the time. So I'm totally looking forward to book number 5.

Enjoy!!!!

   

Most of the stories in this I've already read. I got this for the 2 I haven't.
Life After Theft
It was nice to see a peak into what Hope (1/2 Chaos demon) and Karl (werewolf) were up to. They are happily married with a daughter and another child on the way. Karl is a retired thief who works for Hope's brother in security systems. (He was an excellent thief). Karl is framed and has to go back and steal one last thing to clear his name. I liked this couple from previous books and it was wonderful to see what was going on with them a few years after the series ended.

Zen and the Art of Vampirism
A short story featuring Zoe (I don't remember her from the series) and how she gets rid of 2 vampires who want to take over her territory.

This is the third book in Kelley Armstrong's Rockton series (City of the Lost and Darkness Absolute) and it is one of my favourite series right now. If you like mystery, thrillers and small town secrets this series is for you.

It starts with hearing a plane overhead, normally this would not be a concern for most small towns, but Rockton is different, plane do not just find their way there. The town has only one plane and it is currently parked in the hanger. Casey and Dalton head for the hanger and see a plane lading on their runway.They get a shock when a new resident, Oliver Brady, for their town embarks, claiming that he innocent and has been sent here falsely. The council has sent them a dangerous criminal to keep imprisoned for at least 6 months. The longer Brady is imprisoned in Rockton the louder he states his innocence of the crimes he has supposedly committed. Rockton is not sent up to a prison and it is only a matter of time before some of the town folks believe him and then begins the biggest and deadliest man hunt in Rockton history..

If you finished Darkness Absolute, you were itching to get your hands on this book because of that cliffhanger ending, I was just happy I was late to the Rockton party and only had to wait for the book to come in the mail. This is one of my favourite thriller/mystery series out there and Armstrong is one of my favourite authors, so you can say that I have high hopes for all of her books. Overall I enjoyed this book. I liked that this book ventured a different path from the first two book in that is a man hunt book with sides of murder. This book does not stop from the very beginning and I really enjoyed the Cat and Mouse game that occurs both within Rockton and in the forest as well as mentally as people try to determine if Brady is innocent or not.

Once again having to rely on no technology in order to get things done. I like that they are training Storm to be a working dog especially a tracking dog. I also like that it seemed that Mathias is getting a larger role as I find him extremely fascinating in both his motives and all of the reasons that he was put in Rockton. He's such an interesting character and one you would never want to find yourself on the bad side of. I hope that we get to know even more about the other residence that live in Rockton especially with the new additions that occurred in this book. There are also some revelations about some of the people that Casey has relationships with in this book that I don't think most people will see coming.

Alright, I know that Casey and Duncan are making Storm into a working dog, but Storm was such a focal point throughout the story that other aspects suffered at times. I get that Storm is now an important part to Casey's life and job, and while Storm did find some key evidence some of the times that she ran away from Casey, it seemed to happen over and over again, that it became redundant. Maybe this was to showcase that dog never stops working, but there were quite a few times where she was more of a hindrance than an assets which makes me think that Casey should have just left her at home. I feel like in Casey's case most of the problems that she got into this book were caused by Storm. So I guess what I'm trying to say is I appreciate what Casey and Duncan are trying to do with Storm, I just don't want the dog training aspects to take away from the rest of the plot.

Another good addition to this series, I love the settings, characters and the overall lack of technology around. I look forward to seeing what Armstrong can come up with next for the town of Rockton.

Enjoy!!!!

    

Look, this isn't a perfect book. Let's be honest, but the one thing that Armstrong did in this series (and sadly it still stands out today) is she actually has the women interact with each other. The bad guys are men and women, and the good guys are men and women. The evil women work together and the good women work together. The women are not in competition with each other and are actually friends. Even today, this is somewhat rare in UF and it is so refreshing to see this.

Additionally, in this book Armstrong shows how being a good person who has had a stable life does not necessary equal boring. I like that.