What a whirlwind of a book – full of thrilling action scenes, murder and mystery lurking in the dark and werewolves and vampires battling it out!
This book follows Detective Ryan Cross, who experienced a freak wolf attack that left his wife dead and him a werewolf. He struggles with a string of murders committed by a religious zealot. As he goes deeper into the case, he discovers this is much bigger than one person and it could leave the supernatural world in chaos.
This book is extremely fast-paced; it can easily be read in a day. With the new secrets and clues constantly being revealed, you don’t want to put it down so you can figure out the mystery. I loved how realistic this book felt with the police procedures every time a murder was discovered. Very much something out of Law and Order.
The structure is unique: a mix of first-person perspective from Ryan solving the case and his therapy session, and third-person perspectives from a range of side characters including the murderer. I really enjoyed being inside the head of different characters; it helped shake up the book and keep it fresh.
The supernatural element felt familiar but also had a fresh spin on it. The best example is the werewolves with having to train your inner wolf to control it and the simulation used to help control that. I would have liked to have explored the vampires more and their lore. Hopefully this can be done in the future instalments.
Ryan is such a complicated main character, and I thought his development was excellent. I really enjoyed him most in his therapy sessions, diving deep into his inner mind. This book is almost a character study into him. His trauma, his relationship with his children, his work ethic and morals were dealt with sensitively. I do feel like the side characters fell short and were forgettable with the exception of Jordyn and Tarah. Hopefully the side characters can be more fleshed out in the future.
I award 4 stars.
