If Detective Frank Bennett tries hard enough, he can sometimes forget that Eden Archer, his partner in the Homicide Department, is also a moonlighting serial killer . . .
So this book has that intriguing premise – after all, how often is the cop also the killer? As this is book three in the Archer & Bennett series, I was lost on some of the backstory on both characters and frustrated by the style the book was written in. It’s set in Sydney, Australia, which was interesting but you could tell me it was in America and I’d be hard pressed to tell the difference other than some of the locales. Frank is the typical homicide cop, recovering alcoholic, still reeling from the death of a previous girlfriend and involved with his therapist. Eden is not typical in any way – she’s got a lot of emotional scars and does some assassination work on the side.
The mystery they are dealing with here is to find out who is killing pretty young women that are out jogging. That’s pretty straight forward Criminal Minds kind of stuff that I’ve seen many times. The confusing part was the multiple viewpoints that Ms Fox uses, and the multitude of characters. We have Frank’s first person viewpoint every so often, which was fine; but then it switches to third person narrative as we jump to Eden, and then Imogen (Frank’s therapist girlfriend), then Tara (a young woman dealing with a hateful mother and weight issues), then Hooky, aka Amy (a brilliant 17 year old girl whose parents were killed, and now she’s helping the cops hunt pedophiles on line), then Hades (Eden’s sort of foster father)…and round and round until it all comes together. I was left scratching my head more often than not, trying to piece together what it all had to do with the crimes. I figured out who the villain was early on, but it’s rather gruesome how the person evolved into that head space.
Then at the end, when you think the story is wrapped up, Ms Fox hits you with a twist that takes you by surprise and is definitely not what I’d call a satisfying conclusion. I believe this is the last book about these characters, so it seemed like an odd choice for an ending but I guess in the mystery genre, not everyone gets their happily ever after!