Trigger warning: Sexual assault of minor, domestic violence, suicide attempts

"The Boy" is the second book in Tami Hoag's Broussard and Fourcade series. The twosome are now happily (okay somewhat happily) married for several years and their young son. They are dealing with upheaveal in their department with a new sheriff in charge who wants things done his way.  Detective Nick Fourcade is dealing with fall-out of not being able to close a case which involved an autistic young girl being molested and raped. Detective Annie Broussard is dealing with stress from her aunt having a stroke and feeling pulled from being there as much as she would like with her son. When a murder case is called in that involves a young boy found murdered and his mother taken to the hospital after being beaten and stabbed, Nick and Annie worry that the perpetrator is not finished yet. 

I still have Tami Hoag as one of my favorite mystery/thriller writers out there. I wish she do another Kovac and Liska book, but this one can keep me content for now. My main problem I had were the concidences that tied up the whole book in the end. Other than that I was fascinated by this book and think that it was very strong. The first book in this series didn't impress me much, this one though was so so good. 

Nick is still somewhat of an ass. However, you get to see more depth in him in this one. He is pushing back against a new boss who doesn't seem to care about victims, but how much social media press he gets. Annie feels emotionally distant from him right now and he's the primary on the case involving the dead boy. One thing I liked about Nick from before is that he's really good. He begins to dig, and dig and eventually starts putting some things together. I liked how Hoag lays things out via this character.

Annie does well in this one and you get to see how she handles talking to victims and suspects alike. Though less ready to push back at some of her police colleagues, she realizes the new sheriff isn't the best either. Her and Nick both are more involved in this case due to them thinking of their son and what they would do if someone would harm him.

Hoag also jumps around via different POVs in this one. We get POVs of the new sheriff, a woman in an abusive relationship, a young boy, and the dead boy's mother. I did like the reveals we get along the way. 

The writing in this one is very tight and I thought the flow was good.

The setting of the last book really incorporates the looks/feels/ of Louisiana. I think this one did at times, and other times did not. 

The ending as I already said was too many coincidences to be believed, but I was ultimately satisfied when I finished this one. 

What a weird book.

This doesn't even read like a Tami Hoag book. The main plot is a mess (investigating assault and murders of women) with multiple character POVs. I don't get the romance between Annie Broussard or Nick Fourcade. The setting of Louisiana could have been interesting, but ultimately fell flat. I just couldn't get behind Nick being an abusive police officer and Annie getting harassed by her fellow officers for daring to do the right thing.

I forgot I had "A Thin Dark Line" until I started rummaging through my bookshelves. I honestly didn't recall a thing about this book either so even though I had this book for years, nothing came back to me as I reread this.

Annie Broussard is a deputy looking to eventually become a detective. She finds herself fascinated by Nick Fourcade who is a loose cannon on the force. When Nick lashes out at a suspect, Annie steps on to stop the assault. This leaves Annie with a man who becomes obsessed with her. Nick also becomes obsessed with Annie initially thinking she is part of some conspiracy to ruin him.

I didn't really like any male in this book. Annie deserved better than Nick. In the end I think we're supposed to think Annie will keep Nick on the straight and narrow. Annie is put in danger repeatedly by her fellow officers and gets crapped on. She has an old flame try to tell her what to do and push his feelings on her. Maybe if Annie had a strong female relationship it would have helped balanced the overly masculine POVs.

I didn't believe the person who ended up being the suspect. It just read as false and something to throw out there. And I hated how things ultimately got wrapped up.

The writing was so so since we had multiple POVs. And we had Annie investigating and being harassed and Nick barely doing a thing it felt like. The flow was off. I found myself getting bored at parts. There were so many red herrings in this I just didn't even care at the end who was responsible for what.

I read this cause Hoag has a new book coming out that is a continuance of this series. Hopefully it's better than this.