I read a couple of books by this author earlier this year. They were post-apocalyptic romances which were okay, but not really to my taste. Somehow, I ran across this book and the description sucked me in. An FBI profiler, you say, on a serial killer case? And okay, there's a very attractive Fish & Wildlife officer, but surely the murder case will take priority, right?
Unfortunately this novel follows pretty much the same pattern. A very pretty and highly intelligent woman is attracted to a loner with a violent background (a sniper is violent, right?) At least Zanetti seems to have studied the thriller genre. She provides a buffet of possible killers and plenty of twisty-turny plot points. Laurel Snow is obviously being depicted as neurodivergent, she has trouble reading the subtext of interactions with the people close to her. This makes her character seem rather robotic and her interactions with those around her feel wooden and unnatural. Which makes it understandable that the whole thing feels rather wooden. Mind you, I usually feel that way about thrillers—they just don't thrill me. They are often all plot and very little character development.
The romance element is too obviously telegraphed from the very first, so although Huck Rivers is implicated as possibly the sought after killer, I was absolutely certain that he wasn't. I can appreciate that Zanetti doesn't tie the couple up in an HEA ribbon at the book's end, but the trajectory of the next two books is obvious. Laurel Snow also has discovered some family issues that she needs to tend to, keeping her in the Pacific Northwest.
Counterintuitively, I find myself wanting to read the next book. So I guess I'm glad that my library has it available.
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