L. E. Fraser

In this, the 4th book in the series, two private investigators tangle with their own tortured pasts while hunting a serial killer. Toronto investigator, Samantha McNamara and Reece Hash are engaged. Reece has decided to finish law school, which has left him feeling overextended and short-tempered. When they decide to hire help for their firm, only one candidate shows up, a young man named Elijah Watson. Sam immediately distrusts him...he has stiff movements and stilted speech, and old but odd cigarette burns on his wrist. Nevertheless, I thought the reason for hiring, him since she distrusted him to start with was a bit off. Seems it was based solely on Eli's ability to fix Reece’s malfunctioning computer, so...believe it or not... they hire him. Though Sam and Reece continue to not really mesh emotionally, she preoccupies herself with a new case of ritualistic murder in which a University of Toronto freshman’s corpse was posed naked like a statue and his eyes were replaced with black stones. This coincides with another disappearance of another college student, Bart Walsh, who is the brother of Margaret, the firm’s intern. Margaret says that Bart’s new girlfriend, Angelina “Angel” Stuart, is a rude, manipulative wild child with a questionable past. Making matters worse is the serial killer...Incubus, whom Sam helped catch and place in the Millhaven Institute, has been writing her flattering letters to play games with her head and bring friction to Sam and Reece’s already strained relationship. In her latest outing with the two private eyes, Fraser pays homage to Thomas Harris’ Hannibal Lecter by making Incubus learned, slimy, and dangerous even behind bars. She fuels the plot with increasingly sadistic secrets, one of which props up the tension between Sam and Reece (“ignoring her was his new modus operandi, along with his grumpy demeanor and argumentative attitude. Careful details about the murders, like the staging of victims during foul weather to ruin forensic evidence, are impressively geeky. And Fraser doesn’t let fans down during grisly flashbacks, as a warehouse fire leaves Incubus with “strands of charred hair” drooping “across one wide blue eye that stares sightless from bubbling flesh.” Okay...I know this is book #4 and I should, maybe have started with #1...but I just didn't get this entire scenario. The rating in no way reflects the authors writing ability, but it very much reflects my understanding of these characters.… (altro)

So this is the latest installment about Toronto Private Investigator Samantha McNamara and her partner Reece Hash and the third in this series that I have read this year.
This is Samantha's most personal case yet, as one of her old friends becomes a suspect in a homicide. Out of the three books in this series that I have now finished, this was my favorite. It was deliciously dark and disturbing. L.E. Fraser once again handles a large cast of characters with absolute ease. The only thing I really need to mention, and this isn't actually a criticism of the writing or the author, but just a personal reaction to this book: I absolutely 100% hated all of Samantha's so-called friends, and at times it was driving me nuts that she would just put up with their egocentric and rude behavior. I think because of that I found it a lot harder to "like" Samantha in this one. I felt truly sorry for everything poor old Reece had to put up with and thought the matters were resolved too easily. I wouldn't haven't been as forgiving.
That aside, this was a great story and I particularly liked how the villain was characterized and voiced in this one. Very well done and really chilling. I'm hoping we'll see more of Samantha and Reece in the future.
I received a copy of this book via Netgalley.… (altro)