Book Review: Crimson Lake Road, by Victor Methos
The serial killer's ex-wife keeps running into serial killers.
Thomas & Mercer, 2021, 375 pages
Bestselling author Victor Methos’s acclaimed series continues as prosecutor Jessica Yardley races to catch an art-obsessed serial killer before she becomes his next masterpiece.
Retiring prosecutor Jessica Yardley can’t turn down one last investigation. This time, it’s a set of murders inspired by a series of grisly paintings called The Night Things. She’s the only one who can catch the killer, who’s left a trail of bodies in a rural community outside of Las Vegas.
But the more Jessica finds out, the less clear her case becomes. Out of options, she’s forced to consult her serial killer ex-husband - to gain additional insight into the crimes and the killer’s motivations.
By the time Jessica realizes that pursuing this case is a deadly mistake, it’s too late to turn back. Can she catch the killer, or will she be the final addition to a killer’s masterpiece?
This sequel to A Killer's Wife once again features Jessica Yardley, a public prosecutor who divorced one serial killer and wound up living with another. You might say she's now justifiably gun-shy about relationships, which is maybe why she ends up having a little girlcrush on a flighty eat-pray-love sorta gal who happens be the survivor of Jessica's latest case. Apparently there is another serial killer running around injecting ricin in people, and Angel Rivers barely survived. It's not quite against the rules for Jessica to befriend a victim in a case, but it's certainly a little unprofessional.
(Guess who I pegged as being involved in the killings from the beginning? Guess who was right?)
So this was an interesting little thriller where Jessica is supposedly all set to retire from prosecuting after this one last case. She does a lot of her own legwork for a DA, and besides trying to figure out who the killer is, she's also dealing with a cartoonishly sexist new guy who's taking over for her, and her precocious teenage daughter, whose genius approaches truly implausible levels in this book (she's an expert at everything from quantum physics to pharmacology).
The serial killer mystery was pretty mundane, with the usual twists and red herrings and extra actors showing up. Jessica's ex and her daughter's father, who is still on death row, naturally manages to insert himself into the plot, and the author seems to be trying to hint at the possibility that the supergenius daughter might have too much of her father in her, as he sets them up for a confrontation in the next book.
Two new POV characters are introduced, in the form of the defense attorneys for the guy Jessica is prosecuting. Like Victor Methos's previous books, this one is part suspense thriller, part courtroom procedural. Against the ticking clock of a missing girl, there are a lot of legal maneuvers with Jessica and her adversaries respectfully crossing swords. This seemed mostly a way to add some new characters to the series, and frankly was the least interesting part.
Overall, this was a decent thriller but characterization was flat and the coincidences and twists stretched my suspension of disbelief at times. There's at least one more book in this series, which I'll probably read eventually to find out if the daughter kills her old man.
Also by Victor Methos: My reviews of The Neon Lawyer and A Killer's Wife.
My complete list of book reviews.
Thomas & Mercer, 2021, 375 pages
Bestselling author Victor Methos’s acclaimed series continues as prosecutor Jessica Yardley races to catch an art-obsessed serial killer before she becomes his next masterpiece.
Retiring prosecutor Jessica Yardley can’t turn down one last investigation. This time, it’s a set of murders inspired by a series of grisly paintings called The Night Things. She’s the only one who can catch the killer, who’s left a trail of bodies in a rural community outside of Las Vegas.
But the more Jessica finds out, the less clear her case becomes. Out of options, she’s forced to consult her serial killer ex-husband - to gain additional insight into the crimes and the killer’s motivations.
By the time Jessica realizes that pursuing this case is a deadly mistake, it’s too late to turn back. Can she catch the killer, or will she be the final addition to a killer’s masterpiece?
This sequel to A Killer's Wife once again features Jessica Yardley, a public prosecutor who divorced one serial killer and wound up living with another. You might say she's now justifiably gun-shy about relationships, which is maybe why she ends up having a little girlcrush on a flighty eat-pray-love sorta gal who happens be the survivor of Jessica's latest case. Apparently there is another serial killer running around injecting ricin in people, and Angel Rivers barely survived. It's not quite against the rules for Jessica to befriend a victim in a case, but it's certainly a little unprofessional.
(Guess who I pegged as being involved in the killings from the beginning? Guess who was right?)
So this was an interesting little thriller where Jessica is supposedly all set to retire from prosecuting after this one last case. She does a lot of her own legwork for a DA, and besides trying to figure out who the killer is, she's also dealing with a cartoonishly sexist new guy who's taking over for her, and her precocious teenage daughter, whose genius approaches truly implausible levels in this book (she's an expert at everything from quantum physics to pharmacology).
The serial killer mystery was pretty mundane, with the usual twists and red herrings and extra actors showing up. Jessica's ex and her daughter's father, who is still on death row, naturally manages to insert himself into the plot, and the author seems to be trying to hint at the possibility that the supergenius daughter might have too much of her father in her, as he sets them up for a confrontation in the next book.
Two new POV characters are introduced, in the form of the defense attorneys for the guy Jessica is prosecuting. Like Victor Methos's previous books, this one is part suspense thriller, part courtroom procedural. Against the ticking clock of a missing girl, there are a lot of legal maneuvers with Jessica and her adversaries respectfully crossing swords. This seemed mostly a way to add some new characters to the series, and frankly was the least interesting part.
Overall, this was a decent thriller but characterization was flat and the coincidences and twists stretched my suspension of disbelief at times. There's at least one more book in this series, which I'll probably read eventually to find out if the daughter kills her old man.
Also by Victor Methos: My reviews of The Neon Lawyer and A Killer's Wife.
My complete list of book reviews.