Veena’s review of Wait for the Dark (Bishop SCU, Book 5) by Kay Hooper
Romantic Thriller published by Berkley 07 Mar 17
Reading is my escape from the real world. I love the stimulation of a well-told story, particularly one that gets my adrenaline pumping and keeps me enthralled through the telling. I tend to shy away from the really dark and graphic crimes where evil oozes across the pages of the book, but occasionally I challenge myself with one of Ms. Hooper’s oh-so-dark tales of criminal minds and the people who stop them.
When a series of horrific accidents occur in the small town of Clarity, the local sheriff is taking no chances – he calls in the FBI’s special crimes unit. Are these nothing but a series of coincidences or is there something darker afoot?
Hollis and her team are still in the air when a man’s cry for help leads the sheriff and his deputies to the discovery of a body impaled in a tree. This time there is no doubt. This is the scene of a murder. As the FBI team arrives on the crime scene directly from the airport to investigate, readers learn the killer is not happy with the turn of events and is taking actions to cover his tracks.
There are a couple of anomalies I didn’t understand. Clarity is a small town with a very low crime rate, yet they have a top notch-medical examiner and the sheriff’s deputies are trained in criminology? The Clarity Police Department has a state-of-the-art communication system which there was some type of explanation for, but it is surprising to have such a sophisticated setup in a small town with little or no crime. These were minor distractions that pulled me away from the story at hand, but I shook them off and persevered. It is clear the killer is indulging in blood sacrifices and blood rituals throughout the story. Keeping Hollis, the FBI team leader, in the dark is the purpose of one of the early rituals and Hollis herself acknowledges it’s effectiveness, but this is another thread that is not fully pulled.
What is true and the focus of the continuing story is the next murder within twenty-four hours and a more gruesome murder that’s hard to imagine. The killer is definitely escalating, and the FBI team is going to have to pull out all stops in order to end the killing spree and the mounting body count. Hollis and DeMarco are going to be challenged in a very personal way.
Hollis evolves in every story she’s been a part of. Under duress she develops new psychic traits. When Reese is threatened, she burns through all the magic that has been fogging her senses and negates the damage by developing a new skill. All in all, this is a well-written crime drama where the reader can follow the clues and try to identify the killer. The author does a great job of laying out breadcrumbs for the readers but keeps the identify of the killer a mystery until the very end.
Grade: B –
Summary:
An SCU team investigates a string of accidents, only to uncover a deadly and deliberate monster in the latest novel from New York Times bestselling author Kay Hooper.
In Clarity, North Carolina, the residents have fallen victim to an unfortunate series of events. Seemingly random accidents have taken the lives of several citizens in the small mountain town. But these deadly coincidences are anything but. Something is on the hunt in Clarity, and the only clue as to what is a cryptic note given to the victims 24 hours before they meet their ends: “Wait for dark.”
Sheriff Mal Gordon knows how to handle his town, but he has no idea how to handle this. Hollis Templeton and her team from the Special Crimes Unit, including her partner and lover, telepath Reese DeMarco, are called in to investigate.
But while the SCU has prepared them for the unknown, the incredible evil stalking Clarity shakes the team to its core when one of their own is targeted. Now Hollis, the “cat with nine lives” finds herself facing death again.
And this time, not even her partner can protect her…
No excerpt available.
