The serial killer, known as the Tailor, has struck again. Three bodies in a span of just two weeks after three years of silence...

Ethan Manning knows the killer is escalating and he needs a task force. Fast. What he gets is one single forensic profiler that brings back memories both good and bad...



This series is now so far removed from the first few installments (which I loved), that I can barely believe it.

Bland characters with zero chemistry, a predictable (and unnecessary, in my opinion) conflict between the two leads, plodding pacing, and a very uninteresting villain.

A huge disappointment.

Someone is gunning for Jaid and Adam Raiker's adoptive son, Royce and after a failed kidnapping attempt, Raiker knows he needs to be proactive if he wants to keep his family safe. Enter Declan Gallagher and Eve Larrison posing as a married couple disgruntled with Declan's "former" employer, Adam Raiker.


This story was a disappointment. Too leisurely paced (nothing really happened and there was no real sense of urgency until almost the very end) with rather bland and dull characters and a very sorry excuse of a romantic side-plot.

Deep As The Dead
by Kylie Brant
Book 9 of Mindhunters


First of all, warning for some gruesome murders.  But this is par for Kylie Brant anyway, as her Mindhunters series has always leaned more towards the dark and gritty.  You don't actually see the murder happen, but the victims' bodies DO get described in a bit of detail.

Secondly, I would love to believe that the reason why I enjoyed this book slightly more so than I did the previous two Mindhunters installments, was because Kylie Brant read my reviews and tweaked the few things I'd mentioned as little quibbles from said previous two installments.  One book I mentioned had excellent chemistry between the main couple, but an extremely scattered outline and a chaotic second half; the other book had a well written progression and murder investigation, but the couple held little chemistry.

Deep As The Dead brings the best of both worlds that I've always recalled loving about the Mindhunters series together; and that makes me intensely happy.

Nonetheless, I've yet to be completely disappointed in any of the works I've read by Brant, so really, she's just good at what she does in this genre--telling an exciting romantic suspense, with just the right amount of everything I've always enjoyed in this series.


The Story:
A serial killer at large has been absent for about three years, but recently makes his reappearance with a few brutal killings within a short period of time.  He leaves a calling card--the victims' mouths are sewn together, hiding within the body of a dead dragonfly and second, unique insect within a small glassine bag.  The dragonfly represents the serial killer, the other insect hints at the victims' sins.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sergeant Ethan Manning has been assigned to the newly formed task force to capture this serial killer, dubbed by the media as The Tailor because of his sewing his victims' mouths shut.  The Tailor has eluded law enforcement across Canada for years, several investigators and task forces having been unsuccessful at apprehending him; and Ethan has no qualms about asking for whatever resources he can get in order to bring this monster to justice.  What he hadn't expected was to see Alexa Hayden again, so many years after the two of them parted under tragic circumstances.

Alexa is a consultant with Raiker Forensics, specializing in forensic entomology, which proves useful in figuring out what the serial killer's obsession with insects could lead to.  She's the one who makes the connection between the meaning behind the dragonfly and the second bug, and begins formulating a profile, figuring out what this killer is after, and who the next victim could possibly be.  By chance, The Tailor notices Alexa, learns of her specialty, somehow feels with her some sort of kinship.  And eventually, she has become his next obsession.


My Thoughts:
Of course, a romantic suspense is never short on psychotic serial killers who sight in on our main heroine because of some sort of trait she exhibits.  I'm not entirely sure that I've actually seen this particular device employed in any of the Kylie Brant Mindhunters books, except maybe two.  But this is a device we see in a lot of romantic suspense, nonetheless.  I suspect it's a means of making our main heroine "a special someone" in the story, without really hammering in the fact that she's "a special someone."

While I've never been entirely too thrilled about the main heroine being "special," in such a way, I think that this characteristic actually plays to Alexa's benefit.  Because, despite what Ethan thinks, I think she kind of knows that she's good at getting people to open up to her and let down their guards; and I think she knows that if she uses the right amount of charm, she could get any witness or interviewee to talk freely and comfortably.

And, of course, it's her being "a special someone" that will get our elusive serial killer to finally break his patterns and screw up enough to get caught... obviously.

Anyway...

Deep As The Dead encompasses one of the devices I love most about crime thrillers--a feeling of police procedural and togetherness on the force, where all of our players work together to find the killer and bring him to justice.  It's always intriguing to me, watching our main task force working together in this way, and also kind of bonding over their shared need to stop a monstrous killer.  There were amusing little asides and quips among the task force members, and great interactions.

The investigation was interesting enough to keep me hooked.  The little insights about the use of the insects was interesting.  Now, the whole thing about the killer seeing himself as "doing God's work," is probably an overused trope in crime thrillers, as it's a pretty common one employed.  Of course, it's often commonly used if only because it credible.

The romance between Alexa and Ethan was mature and sweet, tinged with the underlying pain of their history.  To be honest, there were all sorts of signs that an angsty love story was probably going to play out, but I'm actually kind of happy that the two were able to compartmentalize, set aside their feelings about the past, and work with each other.  Even when a few tidbits about their history surfaced, it didn't stop them from being professional; it didn't keep them from being mature about their situation.  It didn't keep the two of them from caring about each other as colleagues, or on a personal level.

It was a subtle, yet wonderfully handled second-chance romance; and the way it played out made me think that their parting really wasn't as angry as they had made it out to be, even if the circumstances were still heartbreaking.

Deep As The Dead is an excellently enjoyable new installment to the Mindhunters series.  And even while there are rather noticeable flaws in editing--typos, missing pronouns, missing words here and there, missing verbs--I found myself just moving on and disregarding those errors.  It's a little jarring at times, truth be told, to see an editing error, because I find myself backtracking at points to try to figure out what the sentence was trying to convey.  But it wasn't bad enough to make me truly upset with the book or it's unpolished publication.

This was a good romantic suspense.  And I look forward to Kylie Brant's next installation... or, in fact, her next book release, which I suspect isn't related to the Mindhunters series.


***

Halloween Bingo

This book could also count for:

• Murder Most Foul
• Serial Killer
• Terrifying Women

A Brief Personal Aside:  

My first post of 2016; a review for the last book I finished reading in 2015!  Happy New Year to everyone!  Happy Reading to all!  Happy Blogging to All!

Now onto the review!

***

What the Dead Know -- Kylie Brant

Book 8 of Mindhunters

What the Dead Know is extremely fast-paced and continuously forward moving, as has always been the case with Kylie Brant's Mindhunters books. This one was better written and better edited than the previous, Secrets of the Dead; and it also involved a more focused premise, story telling and progression.

The only fault I found with it, however, is the romance--the chemistry seems to be missing.


The Story:
Keira Saxon is lured into the game of a serial killer when she discovers that her father hadn't been killed in a wilderness attack by a bear--her father's liver is left in a cooler at her cabin door and Keira is led on a chase through the snowy woods, only to be attacked by the perpetrator.

Knowing that she is too close to this case, but not wanting to be left out of the loop Danny Saxon's now homicide investigation, Keira calls upon the aid of Adam Raiker's forensic investigation organization.

Enter Finn Carstens, an Mindhunter working for Adam Raiker who used to be a medical examiner. Along with Keira, the two discover that Keira's father wasn't the only murder victim and that their mysterious serial killer is playing a deadly game with human lives. And Keira is his ultimate targeted hunt.


My Thoughts:
Finn and Keira make for a great investigating team together, and this book brings back to mind one of my more favored Mindhunters installments, the very first Waking Nightmare and the investigating partnership between Ryne and Abby. Of course, Keira and Finn are less antagonistic to each other, readily creating that partnership bond and trust; unfortunately, at the same time, they also display a lot less romantic chemistry than I had been expecting for a romance.

There's an underlying OTP-ness to their slowly developing relationship, but I fail to FEEL how the two start to fall for each other. Even the sexual tension seems a bit lackluster--in comparison, the previous pair of Mindhunters in Secrets of the Dead, Eve and Declan, had a haphazard story and almost too tacky romantic conclusion, but they had chemistry.

Anyway... back to this book.

I thoroughly enjoyed the crime thriller aspect of it, even if I felt that the romance was not as developed. And, really, that's all I have left to say about it.

Once again, another great Kylie Brant romantic suspense to pass the time and enjoy--a very enjoyable, entertaining crime thriller to pass a cold night in December. I could just feel the chills radiating off of the snowy Michigan setting.

Secrets of the Dead -- Kylie Brant

Book 7 of Mindhunters series

Adult, Romantic Suspense, Crime Thriller, International, Espionage

So obviously I was a little less than satisfied with what this book gave me. I’m sure that’s my bad since I over-hyped myself into wanting this to be the best book in the world. Because I love Kylie Brant’s Mindhunters series, even if I didn’t love every one of the previous six installments. It doesn’t negate the fact that Kylie Brant is a good writer with great ideas for crime thrillers or that the Mindhunters series is packed full of characters I’ve come to love and squeal about whenever they make an appearance in other books.

And Secrets of the Dead started out very, very strong! The characters were promising, the criminal mystery had direction, and the progress was great. You get to be reunited with Adam Raiker, his FBI agent wife, Jaid, and their son Royce. I was also looking forward to seeing some of the other Mindhunters make brief appearances, but alas, we only get to see Kellan Burke in real time and the rest are mentioned in passing.

Which is quite fine with me; Declan and Eve make an excellent addition to the Mindhunters world anyway. (Although it seems we’ve got another new Mindhunter in the mix, Finn Carstens, who used to be a doctor and who shows up nearing the end of the book; so I’m interested to see if he gets his story next.)

And even with the few minor editing errors (typos, pronoun switching, left out words here and there, repeated words in the same sentence) I still enjoyed the book a lot; and I’ll be the first to admit that editing can sometimes deter one’s enjoyment of a book even if the book has been outstanding. One editing error per several hundred pages doesn’t bug me; one editing error per every several pages catches my attention. However, several editing errors within the span of approximately ten pages starts to get annoying.

These came and went. But I’m going to say right now: someone got lazy. And I’m sorely disappointed about it, because for a seasoned romance author, I’d almost say that this kind of lack of editing and finalization of written product is unacceptable.

But thankfully, the book itself isn’t a terrible one. And I have a soft spot in my heart for the Mindhunters series. The last half of this book just needs to be gone back over with a fine editing comb, is all. Everything else was great! Though I DO take slight exception with some of the romance’s development (more on that later).


The Story:
There is an attempted kidnapping of Adam Raiker’s (head honcho of the famous Mindhunters organization) stepson, and being the kind of person he is, Adam is determined to find out who was behind the failed abduction. Because until the truth is found, Royce Raiker will probably not be safe for the long run--and of course, Adam has taken all the precautions to place his stepson and his wife in a protective safe house for the time being.

Enter Declan Gallagher and Eve Larrison. Declan is one of the newest additions to Raiker’s forensics and investigative team--seasoned police detective from D.C. who had worked cyber crimes and vice before being recruited by Adam Raiker. Eve is on loan from the State Department--a brilliant linguistics specialist as a hyper-polyglot who is fluent in over sixty different languages. Both will be going undercover as a married couple to ferret out the ones responsible for Royce’s attempted kidnapping.

But as the couple digs deeper into the investigation, a whole world of secrets in this criminal organization is made known to them--prominent of all, a large human trafficking ring.


My Thoughts:
I can’t be too disappointed that this book wasn’t what I’d expected--that’s my fault for thinking this would be another straight forward, gory murder mystery. I mean, there are murders, but the criminal aspect goes so much deeper than that. And the title is Secrets of the Dead... of course, I’d be thinking that this was another murder mystery...

And to be honest, the story started out very strong. I was hooked immediately with the wondering of how our couple would handle going undercover as a married couple; how Eve’s hyper-polyglot skills would come in handy infiltrating a criminal organization comprised of people from many different cultural backgrounds.

Even without a prominent murder mystery, I was enjoying the heck out of the investigation for the identities of the people wanting to kidnap Royce as well as what Royce’s birth history has to do with anything. It was intriguing and things were going oh, so well. The human trafficking underbelly of the crime organization was also a good twist to include and gave the story a bit more excitement and intrigue.

There were slight hiccups along the way, but I skimmed over those and kept reading. There were tangents that felt a little monotonous, but I waved them off and continued enjoying. The writing is great! Kylie Brant delivers what I’ve come to expect after reading her Mindhunters series.

Then one of the two main conflicts comes to a head with a satisfying resolution a little after the midpoint of the book… and then suddenly about three more conflicts spring out of the ground that need resolutions as well. After that, it felt like the whole focus of this book spins out of control and we’re now chasing criminals around the world and trying to resolve several other conflicts that came from nowhere. Exciting as that may have been, I can’t help but feel like we were grasping for a good ending, but somehow lost track of what that ending should be.

Things spiraled very much out of control from there on.

I hate to say this, but a lot of things could have been skimmed out of the story altogether. The multiple editing errors per few pages didn’t really help either. Neither did the tacky romance or the sex scenes, which was a bit disappointing, really, because my mind registers how well executed and how well written the previous six Mindhunters books were in both of those aspects.

I mean, the development of the romantic relationship between Declan and Eve had been great! I loved their chemistry, the tension, the build-up, the banter... There hadn’t been much in terms of needing to pretend to be intimate or in love in front of other people (which was a bummer, cause I love watching a potential romantic couple have to be uncomfortable around each other due to these types of situations, because it can be all kinds of fun), but they still managed to have a good working relationship while slowly falling for each other.

And that’s what I loved about their romance the most. Aside from having potentially explosive romantic chemistry, Eve and Declan made out to be excellent partners on their mission.

Unfortunately, the moment they had sex, everything turned into a less than exciting love story. The first kiss they had (sans sex scene) was multiple times hotter than their ultimate sex scene, or even any other sex scene after that. Even their ultimate proclamations of love felt a little lackluster, yet at the same time a bit overdone (I don’t know how it’s possible to be both, but it certainly happened that way. Maybe I’m just really hard to please--I don’t deny that).

It’s like we kind of gave up on the rest of the story after a certain point in the book.

Nonetheless, the characters were still great and the concept of the Mindhunters is still a personal favorite. The few quibbles certainly didn’t keep me from loving the coupling of Declan and Eve nor did it deter my immense admiration for Eve’s no-nonsense, straight forward personality, or the fact that she’s able to blend and make herself seem insignificant while using her invisibility to her advantage for investigation purposes.

I will more than likely be looking out for the next book--which is proclaimed to be due out in December this year.

***

Related Posts:

• First Impression: Secrets of the Dead, 18% Progression