Cold Moon – Alexandra Sokoloff
The hunt for mass murderer Cara Lindstrom is over. FBI Special Agent Matthew Roarke has been working for this moment: the capture of a killer who savagely hunts the worst of humanity. But Roarke remains traumatized by his own near-death at the hands of the serial killer who slaughtered Cara’s family…and haunted by the enigmatic woman who saved his life.
Then the sixteen-year-old prostitute who witnessed Cara’s most recent murder goes missing, and suddenly pimps are turning up dead on the streets of San Francisco, killed with an MO eerily similar to Cara’s handiwork.
Is a new killer on the loose with a mission even more deadly than hers? In the pulse-pounding third Huntress/FBI Thrillers book, Roarke will have to go on the hunt…and every woman he meets, even those closest to him, may prove deadly.
My thanks to Thomas & Mercer for my review copy which I received through Netgalley
Cold Moon – the third volume in the brilliant Huntress/FBI thrillers series and there are problems ahead for Agent Matthew Roarke. At the end of the previous story (Blood Moon) serial killer Cara Lindstrom had been captured by the authorities. Cold Moon opens with Cara in prison and Roarke increasingly obsessed with the enigma that she represents.
While Cara is in prison the reader gets to observe the adverse impact that incarceration is having upon her. She does not react well to being placed in a cage and soon finds that she is attracting unwelcome attention. It becomes clear that Cara is going to have to take action if she wants to be left alone.
I mentioned problems for Roarke. While Cara is in prison there a murder is committed which shows all the hallmarks of being one of Cara’s kills, however, if she is locked up then how could she possibly have killed someone on the outside? Does this mean the FBI have apprehended the wrong woman or is there a copycat (or a protégé) continuing Cara’s mission?
With a focussed Social Media campaign championing Cara’s case and trumpeting the ‘good’ work of The Lady Death, Roarke and his team have their hands full managing public expectations. Yet they also face the problem of tracking down the new killer who appears intent on taking out the pimps who are making lives of so many working girls a perpetual misery.
I particularly enjoyed how Alexandra Sokoloff developed the broad cast of characters in Cold Moon, especially Roarke’s team at the FBI who are given much more prominence in this book (with Cara being less in the limelight). We see how Roarke’s obsession with Cara is creating divisions and concern within his team and how they are trying to drive the investigations forward without his full awareness.
Cold Moon tackles the subject of morality and challenges the reader to consider the justification of killing to avenge a multitude of ‘wrongs’. Alexandra Sokoloff balances these issues within a compelling story and kept me engrossed. The Huntress series is going from strength to strength and I cannot wait for the next instalment.
Cold Moon is published by Thomas & Mercer and can be ordered here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cold-Moon-Huntress-FBI-Thrillers/dp/1477821627/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1458165780&sr=1-1