The 7th Victim by Alan Jacobson started off feeling a bit like an episode of Criminal Minds as the main character is an FBI profiler who works for the BAU. However, as the story continued I started to realize that this woman was in no way capable of being a member of such a prestigious group. Her credibility is basically nil as she rants and raves at the office while dealing with a lot of drama in her personal life. To say the drama was overdone would be to put it mildly. (There isn't an area of her life where she isn't faltering in some way and the obvious course of action to fix said problem never seems to occur to her.) Our main character, Karen Vail, has been trying to find the Dead Eyes Killer for several weeks with virtually no leads. The killer's signature is gruesome and the bodies keep piling up but she's too wrapped up in her own life to really spend a lot of time working the case efficiently. (And then it's further complicated by her relationship with the members of her task force.) I don't want to spoil the ending but it was so ridiculous that it really sealed the lid on the coffin for me. I didn't like the main character, I didn't like the plot, and the killer reveal was dumb. 0/10 do not recommend

Adding insult to injury, this is the first in a series. That's a no for me.

What I'm Currently Reading: Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire

The Agency #4, A standalone, the main characters in this one is brother to the main character in the previous book but that is where the connection ends. Ash Marcel was a Chicago PD Detective until his partner mysteriously disappeared, with the amount of blood left at the scene they all assumed he was dead, and his relationship to his partner's daughter/fiancee ended, now he's a professor. Five years ago Chicago was plagued by a serial killer the press named The Butcher, but after an unsuccessful attack on Remi Walsh and the disappearance/death of her father the murders stopped. Remi was never the same after that. Now, five years later Ash's brother Chicago PD Detective Jax Marcel walks into this classroom telling him The Butcher is back and Remi is dead, only it's not Remi she just looks almost identical to her.

Ash knows it's only a matter of time before The Butcher goes after Remi again and figures he's the best person to protect her. Not just because she's in danger and she's the daughter of his old partner but because he still loves her. Remi still loves Ash also but she's worried things won't go back to the way they were. As Ash and Remi dig into the old files and try to figure out what they missed all those years ago Jax investigates the recent murders.

Overall, it was a great read. It was an intense and interesting read with a good mystery and a nice second chance romance. I really liked Ash and Remi they are a good pair. I do hope Jax is next to get his own story.     

One carjacking, two possible scenarios - Fight or flight. That's where the story splits off into two different directions, one with Gem the warrior and one with Gem the victim. It's an interesting concept, and it did make for an intriguing storyline. That said, some things worked and some, well, not so much. The contrast between the two Gem's worked, but did get somewhat confusing as the story progressed, so I was flipping back and forth to keep track which Gem said or did what thing. I think part of that was due to a handful of other characters thrown in and of course, there actions and conversations were also different, depending on which timeline they were in. The chapters are labeled with the appropriate Surrender/Fight reality, but it's still a lot to keep up with. In the end, The Victim is an interesting story, a strange one at times, but interesting nonetheless. So, for me, it comes out somewhere in the middle. Parts were terrific, but others fell a little flat.

Please note that I received this book via NetGalley. This did not affect my rating or review.

Well this was a shame. I was looking forward to this one because having an author follow the two possible paths a potential car jacking victim could go sounded so intriguing. Too bad that Manning didn't just focus on the main protagonist and added in POVs from so many people. Also I got so confused after a while if I was following Gem as survivor or Gem as warrior.

"The Victim" follows Gem Golding. Gem stops on her way home to get some painkillers and is accosted by a carjacker. Gem reels wondering if she should fight back or should she just acquiesce with the carjacker's demands. We get at the decision point and from there Manning follows Gem's life if she given in or if she had fought back. 

At first I really liked the book. I liked Gem and understood why she was so focused on not being seen as a victim (in either timeline) and getting back to her job. I wish that Manning had stayed more focused on her since the whole point of the book was Gem and how her life was impacted. Manning then shows the different timelines for the same people (her boyfriend, the carjacker, the detectives, the reporter, and others) who follow if Gem was a victim or a survivor. 

There was way too much going on and I had to keep going back and forth in my Kindle to make sure I was reading it correctly if Gem was a victim or survivor. After a while I just gave up and started to feel frustrated because it was hard to follow what was going on. Manning should have stripped out the other characters. We focused way too much on the carjacker who apparently went to how to be a serial killer school. 

The writing was okay, but I think the scattered shot approach to everyone didn't work real well. I was disappointed in the conclusion of one of the story-lines (Gem as a survivor) and think that Manning should have followed up with an epilogue on both of those story-lines. However, I don't think it mattered to him much, since as I said, Gem wasn't really the focus as she should have been. 

The flow was up and down throughout. Following so many people and different story-lines depending on which version of Gem we were with in the book was just confusing and definitely impacted what was going on. It didn't help that we had subplots going on with the detectives and carjacker and reporter as well. The boyfriend POVs don't really count considering how short they were. 

The ending was a meh to one story-line with Gem and a "I guess" to the other one following her. 

That’s a no from me. All over the place and the message seems to be stay a warrior and die or become a victim and live? Also we didn’t need the segues into the detectives and reporters lives. It took away from the story.