Karoline Anderson is a pediatrician with a love of books. Born in Vancouver, Canada, she currently lives with her husband, two daughters, and cat Smoky on a lake in Nebraska. She runs whenever she has time and has completed several triathlons and one marathon.
I've read the first book in this series but somehow missed the second one, so it was lovely to get back to Kaitlyn Kruse and Joe Riley for book three. I needn't have worried about picking things up out of order though – these work brilliantly as standalones, even if I've no doubt missed a great read in the process.
The case itself grabbed me immediately: a prominent Seattle judge assassinated in his sleep, leaving his pregnant wife a widow, and a suspect list that just keeps growing. Was it the man who'd stabbed a previous victim thirty times and sent the judge death threats? A tech company run by moguls with tempers ready to blow? Or an apple grower out in the Wenatchee Valley, desperate enough to save his business to do anything? I was fully immersed from the first page and ended up devouring the whole thing in a day.
I do love a supernatural element in a book, though it's a fine line – done badly it can ruin a story completely. Here it works wonderfully. Kaitlyn's gift lets her slip into her past lives through her dreams, meeting past versions of herself and the people tied to them, who hand her clues she then has to work out how to place into her current case. It adds a whole extra layer to the plot.
Kaitlyn and Joe are terrific characters in their own right, but it's their dynamic and working relationship that really makes this series for me. The reveal completely floored me – I never saw it coming – and it made for a fantastic finish to an already gripping read. Can't wait for the next instalment.
5 ⭐️ Thanks to Karoline Anderson for an ARC of this book.