She Treads Softly: The Third to Die

Sunday, January 26, 2020

The Third to Die

The Third to Die by Allison Brennan
MIRA Books: 2/4/20
eBook review copy; 464 pages
ISBN-13: 9780778309444
Mobile Response Team #1

The Third to Die by Allison Brennan is a very highly recommended procedural/thriller and is a captivating, exciting start to a new series. I'm hooked and cannot wait for the next book in the series!

Undercover Detective Kara Quinn, who is on forced leave/vacation from the LAPD, decides to spend it with her grandmother in Liberty Lake, Washington. While jogging early one morning she discovers a body by the lake. It is that of a woman who is a nurse and her death indicates rage. The method of the murder is identified as likely being done by a psychopathic serial killer called the Triple Killer, named because he murders three random victims, three days apart, every three years. So, according to his profile, this is the first of what will be three murders.

In Washington DC, the newly minted FBI Mobile Response Team, which is designed to cover rural areas underserved by law enforcement, is mobilized and sent to the scene to investigate the murder. The MRT team is led by FBI special agent Mathias (Matt) Costato. The killer will strike again in three days and this is a chance to stop the murder of two more people until the psychopath disappears for another three years. Kara is also assisting local law enforcement as the clock counts down, and things heat up between her and Matt.

Why have I never read a thriller by Allison Brennan? I loved this procedural/thriller and was totally engrossed in the plot from start to finish. The writing was very good. I found it hard to put down - following and exploring clues and leads as the investigation continued. The plot unfolds through three different points of view, Matt, Kara, and the killer. I will concede that some sections were a bit slower, but I felt they were needed to add depth to the plot as well as convey information we needed to know.

Kara and Matt are both great characters. Kara is complicated, prickly, strong, damaged, and intelligent. Matt is smart and driven; his damage is more contained but you get hints about his past. That the two would connect, work well together, be attracted to each other, and clash at the same time, was a given. I'm looking forward to the second book in this series. I'd like to see Matt and Kara take on another investigation.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of MIRA Books.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.