January 26th, 2:10 Ohio time. I started reading this today, and...okay. I'm hoping there's a reason for it, but why would a very meticulous and anal killer leave DNA evidence? He steals trucks to hide what he drives and leaves very little trace evidence in them, maybe some blood of the victim, and he returns the vehicles when he's done. He doesn't even quite "steal", he "borrows" the vehicles from people on vacation so there's no one to report them missing. He commits four murders and immediately moves away from the area. He changes his name every time he moves, and works in a job where he can spy on people and it's not weird for him to strike up conversations with customers. ...Why would he leave very blatant evidence behind?!
This is annoying and frustrating to no end. I love books like this, where parts of it are told from the killer's perspective. Silence of the Lambs and Se7en are two of my favorite movies, and Buffalo Bill one of my favorite criminals. I love how the plots are more about how the killer is getting away with everything, and if the police will catch him, over how smart the cops are in relation to the dumb criminal leaving evidence and fingerprints all over the place. Those movies, and book in the case of SotL, have apparently spoiled me.
I hope this book gets better. I haven't even touched on the boring and transparent relationship. I bet they sleep together before the case is solved, which is how most books like this go.
Edit: January 26th, 4:10.
Not going near another of this author's books. Healing sex and the magical power of love are not my cup of tea, and the murderer was lame, at best. Decent premise, if the author hadn't felt the need to have Olivia whine about her past which was beyond her control, the cop mope about his past which he was slightly to blame for, and of course Every Single Person had some uber-traumatic event that happened in their past. I don't care if this was the third book in a trilogy and I only read the last one. It was enough.
And the side plot about Hall...pure filler. No real impact on the main plot at all, except to...what, keep the tension up? Didn't work. You expect the attack, and since there always has to be a Happily Ever After, you know nobody important will die. Clichéd and flat-out annoying.
I'm sorry if this seems unnecessarily harsh. I'm not saying the author is a horrible writer and should never write another book as long she lives. I don't care if she does or not - I'm just not going to read them.