Book Review: Into the Black Nowhere by Meg Gardiner

Book: 30/100

Rating: 4/5

Summary: In southern Texas, on Saturday nights, women are disappearing. One vanishes from a movie theater. Another is ripped from her car at a stoplight. Another vanishes from her home while checking on her baby. Rookie FBI agent Caitlin Hendrix, newly assigned to the FBI's elite Behavioral Analysis Unit, fears that a serial killer is roaming the dark roads outside Austin. Caitlin and the FBI's serial crime unit discover the first victim's body in the woods. She's laid out in a bloodstained, white baby-doll nightgown. A second victim in a white nightie lies deeper in the forest's darkness. Both bodies are surrounded by Polaroid photos, stuck in the earth like headstones. Each photo pictures a woman in a white negligee, wrists slashed, suicide-style--posed like Snow White awaiting her prince's kiss. To track the UNSUB, Caitlin must get inside his mind. How is he selecting these women? Working with a legendary FBI profiler, Caitlin searches for a homology--that elusive point where character and action come together. She profiles a confident, meticulous killer who convinces his victims to lower their guard until he can overpower and take them in plain sight. He then reduces them to objects in a twisted fantasy--dolls for him to possess, control, and ultimately destroy. Caitlin's profile leads the FBI to focus on one man: a charismatic, successful professional who easily gains people's trust. But with only circumstantial evidence linking him to the murders, the police allow him to escape. As Saturday night approaches, Caitlin and the FBI enter a desperate game of cat and mouse, racing to capture the cunning predator before he claims more victims.

Thoughts: I absolutely loved UNSUB. About halfway through reading it I trekked to a library that had the sequel in stock because I knew I would want to read it ASAP!

I love this series: Gardiner's storytelling is so good that there's no fluff, she jumps right into the story and it doesn't feel too abrupt or like you're missing out on anything. This time, it was following the story of a serial killer based on Ted Bundy. Just like the first, this book was excellently written, paced, and suspenseful.

I feel like this one was a typical second in a series book: wasn't as great as the first one, and did a lot of groundwork for the third installment of the series (which I just found out was picked up as an Amazon Prime series)! It definitely delves into the complexity of Caitlin's character and how she can cross the line with her UNSUB's. I did feel that the secondary character's in the first novel were more memorable than the ones we were introduced to in this book, but in the grand scheme of things, it really doesn't take away from your enjoyment of the book.