***beware of spoilers until I get the spoiler tags cleaned up***

My reading slump continues.  Even Josh Lanyon has let me down!  I don't always love Josh's books, but usually it is because one of the main characters is too much of a dick.  I can, usually, count on the mysteries to make sense and the LEO characters to be reasonably intelligent and good at their jobs.  Not here.

Adam is both TSTL and psychic all at the same time. There are two points at which he figures something out with no rational basis I could see.  First, he see a picture of a young women when she was a girl, standing with two older boys.  At a glance Adam determines that the picture wasn't given to her, that she stole it, and that she has a crush on one of the boys.  Second, he meets the bad guy for the first time and 

But even though Adam is apparently psychic, he is also appallingly incompetent.  Before the case starts,

He also

Rob isn't psychic - just incompetent and touchy.  For example, he gets mad at Adam for 

Josh also sets up a romance that can't work, at least not yet, and then makes it work with some really improbable behavior. 

So, yeah, my reading slump continues.  Rats.

Clever and ambitious, Special Agent Adam Darling (yeah, he's heard all the jokes before) was on the fast track to promotion and success until his mishandling of a high profile operation left one person dead and Adam "On the Beach." Now he's got a new partner, a new case, and a new chance to resurrect his career, hunting a legendary serial killer known as The Crow in a remote mountain resort in Oregon.

Deputy Sheriff Robert Haskell may seem laid-back, but he's a tough and efficient cop -- and he's none too thrilled to see feebs on his turf -- even when one of the agents is smart, handsome, and probably gay. But a butchered body in a Native American museum is out of his small town department's league. For that matter, icy, uptight Adam Darling is out of Rob's league, but that doesn't mean Rob won't take his best shot.

This was...neat. Perhaps a bit too neat and I keep coming across more and more Lanyon-books where I think "This story would have needed more pages."

The mystery was very good, at least for the first half. It had enough twists and turns to keep me reading till after midnight because "OH I did not see that coming and now I need to know what happens next." Towards the end, it lost a bit of steam and things wrapped up a bit too neat and too quickly. Suddenly everything just happened and the case was solved.

The romance was...lacking. I did enjoy that it had alternating POVs instead of just one like in most of her books and also that it was a difference from the writer + soldier/cop formula Lanyon uses a lot. But it wrapped up...well too neatly. I would have had fewer problems with it, if it had been a definite start of a series with a Happy for now ending and in fact, expected it right until the epilog, in which all problems are solved by the power of tru luv. As I said: too neat.

Again, another let down. Don't do this to me, Lanyon. It's like you're trying too hard to create this complicated mysterious story but it doesn't make sense once you read it.

Lots of loose ends and nonsense plots, with an ending too abrupt.

Yet another book where the "Love story" doesn't convince me.

3 stars? Maybe.


Well, I saved quite my bucks and waited to buy this book and read it at a time when I was "so ready" for a good romantic suspense story. Winter Kill didn't disappoint - not completely. It didn't knock me off my feet, either. Rob Haskell, local cop in Nearby, has a skeleton on his hands and his superior invites the FBI to take a look. Because it could have something to do with a serial killer. Agent Darling shows up with his partner, takes one look and is... not sure. Maybe there could be a connection, but mostly he doesn't think so, so this is the end of that investigation in Nearby. Well, almost, because firstly, he has a little fun between the sheets with Rob. Nothing earth-shattering, just some uncomplicated pleasure between two adults.

Or not. Because some time later there is another body, and now Agent Darling is personally requested to help investigate the murder of one of the town's very own. Of course, there is sexual tension between Rob and Adam, amongst other things.

What I liked? The Writing. Lanyon just has a way with words that impresses me, and gets to me every. Single. Time. I love it!

But the story was something else. Firstly, the investigation is clearly more important than relationship building. Which is fine with me, because hello?! Serial killer on the move! And I'm a huge fan of suspense/crime mixed with a little romance, so this aspect made me like the book more.

Which is not what I can say about the rest of it. I'll hide it, because I'll probably spoiler a lot.

Firstly, the solution of the crime was awful, no two ways about it. Two serial killers, both not entirely convincing? Really? Uhm, no. Not for me. The way to the solution was good. I liked the suspense, the guessing. They actually did some investigating, and had some adventures doing it - in and outside of the bedroom. That was really fine with me. Not quite as fun as some of Lanyons previous works, but still good. But the end?! The solutions?! So not my thing.

The other part? The epilogue! Actually, make that the last chapters and the epilogue! What, do you absolutely need a life altering, possibly fatal, catastrophy to bring people together?! I admit it, I'm tired of the whole "Oh my god, you almost died - I love you!" And the epilogue was just the icing of the cake. Because What. The Hell. And I'm supposed to believe that? Adam abandoning his city life and career with the BAU, with a legend profiler, to be with a man he barely knows? Come! On! Agent calm, controlled, and coll as a cucumber? Absolutely not. Sounds romantic in other stories? Maybe. I just didn't buy it here.

So, what's left to say? It was okay. Lanyon has a wonderful style that I enjoy immensely. But the plot here was just not "good enough" and the details didn't work together as a whole as I'm used to from her. For most authors it would have been 3.5 stars or something. But I already said it and I'll say it again: I hold Lanyon to higher standards. So 2.5 stars, because it was only okay. I liked it well enough, but I'd hoped for a lot more going in, and was somewhat disappointed.