Halloween Bingo 2022
How could I resist this book with the gorgeous raven on the cover? I'm not exactly sure what it's doing there—ravens don't have a significant role in the story. I guess it did its job, though, since I picked up the book.
”When you lived in the desert, it was easy to forget the good months. The months of magical and riotous flowers. Reni always had to remind herself that the barrenness was temporary. But when you were in the middle of it, it could feel permanent and endless and inescapable.”
I was conflicted about the first book in this series because I have mixed feelings about books that centre on serial killers. Thankfully this book doesn't have that focus, involving a kidnapping instead. Frasier writes a good tense mystery, plus she builds up our knowledge of Daniel, the homicide detective, and Reni, the retired profiler and daughter of a serial killer. Daniel has his own issues—his mother disappeared when he was eight years old and, now in his 30s, he is still searching for her. As a detective, he is in an excellent position to be able to investigate any mysterious bodies found in the area.
Frasier uses current events to inform her fiction. This one featured school shooting victims, YouTube make-up divas, Doomsday preppers, and incels. These may seem like they don't all go together, but she makes them fit and leaves you slightly uneasy that it feels highly possible.
Reni lives out in the Mojave desert, where a lot of the action takes place, and the initial crime happens in a remote location on the Pacific Crest Trail. Both of these settings qualify this novel for use to fufill my The Barrens Bingo square.
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