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Mindhunters #9

Deep as the Dead

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They call him The Tailor. He leaves his victims near rivers or lakes with their mouths sewn shut and an exotic blue dragonfly placed inside. After a three year hiatus he’s back, more violent than ever. And with three bodies discovered in just two weeks, it’s clear that he’s escalating.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sergeant Ethan Manning is short on leads. What he needs is a proper task force and more resources. What he gets is Dr. Alexa Hayden, a forensic consultant from the States. A woman he hasn’t seen in twenty years, one with whom he shares a history. He still bears the scars.

Returning to Nova Scotia is harder than Alexa expected, and working alongside Ethan threatens to reopen old wounds. But she’ll allow nothing to shake her focus. Until she finds herself the killer’s newest obsession. Now she and Ethan will have to confront their past in order to predict the man’s next move. The Tailor will leave no sin unpunished, and his unholy crusade has marked Alexa for death.

352 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 4, 2017

68 people are currently reading
272 people want to read

About the author

Kylie Brant

82 books638 followers
The mother of five children, Kylie Brant claims she began writing to save her sanity. Plotting stories became her method of escape from the reality of constant ball games, chauffeuring kids, and refereeing "minor" disagreements between her perfect offspring.

In 1992 she was elated to get a call from Silhouette offering to buy her second novel. Home with laryngitis at the time, she still managed to croak out agreement, and her career was born. A few months later she went on to sell Rancher's Choice, the first manuscript she’d written.

Kylie is married to her high school sweetheart, and they make their home in Iowa. She insists that all her heroes are based on her husband of 23 years because he possesses that most heroic of make qualities — ironing skills. Those abilities come in handy, as she juggles a full time teaching job with writing and a family.

Doing things the easy way has never held much appeal for this multi award-winning author. She graduated with high honors from the University of Northern Iowa. A graduation photo shows her in cap and gown holding her two sons, one aged 16 months and the other three weeks. She went on to obtain a teaching job working with learning-disabled children while completing her master’s degree at night and during summers.

"There was a time in my life when I could imagine myself as a life-long student," she recalls. "I actually toyed with the idea of pursuing a doctorate. But instead, my life took a spin and I ended up writing romances. I’ve never regretted it!" Her family has since been completed by the birth of another son and a set of twins, a boy and a girl.

Kylie’s books are regularly featured on bestseller lists such as Waldenbooks and B. Dalton Bookseller. With over a million copies of books in print, her novels have been distributed in 20 countries and released in seven languages.

Family and friends are the main focus of Kylie’s life. When she isn’t writing or teaching, she enjoys reading and flower gardening. She loves traveling, preferring beach, ocean, and room service.

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Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
Profile Image for Anita.
744 reviews56 followers
October 23, 2017
First of all, warning for some gruesome murders.  But this is par for Kylie Brant anyway, as her Mindhunters series has always leaned more towards the dark and gritty.  You don't actually see the murder happen, but the victims' bodies DO get described in a bit of detail.

Secondly, I would love to believe that the reason why I enjoyed this book slightly more so than I did the previous two Mindhunters installments, was because Kylie Brant read my reviews and tweaked the few things I'd mentioned as little quibbles from said previous two installments.  One book I mentioned had excellent chemistry between the main couple, but an extremely scattered outline and a chaotic second half; the other book had a well written progression and murder investigation, but the couple held little chemistry.

Deep As The Dead brings the best of both worlds that I've always recalled loving about the Mindhunters series together; and that makes me intensely happy.

Nonetheless, I've yet to be completely disappointed in any of the works I've read by Brant, so really, she's just good at what she does in this genre--telling an exciting romantic suspense, with just the right amount of everything I've always enjoyed in this series.


The Story:
A serial killer at large has been absent for about three years, but recently makes his reappearance with a few brutal killings within a short period of time.  He leaves a calling card--the victims' mouths are sewn together, hiding within the body of a dead dragonfly and second, unique insect within a small glassine bag.  The dragonfly represents the serial killer, the other insect hints at the victims' sins.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sergeant Ethan Manning has been assigned to the newly formed task force to capture this serial killer, dubbed by the media as The Tailor because of his sewing his victims' mouths shut.  The Tailor has eluded law enforcement across Canada for years, several investigators and task forces having been unsuccessful at apprehending him; and Ethan has no qualms about asking for whatever resources he can get in order to bring this monster to justice.  What he hadn't expected was to see Alexa Hayden again, so many years after the two of them parted under tragic circumstances.

Alexa is a consultant with Raiker Forensics, specializing in forensic entomology, which proves useful in figuring out what the serial killer's obsession with insects could lead to.  She's the one who makes the connection between the meaning behind the dragonfly and the second bug, and begins formulating a profile, figuring out what this killer is after, and who the next victim could possibly be.  By chance, The Tailor notices Alexa, learns of her specialty, somehow feels with her some sort of kinship.  And eventually, she has become his next obsession.


My Thoughts:
Of course, a romantic suspense is never short on psychotic serial killers who sight in on our main heroine because of some sort of trait she exhibits.  I'm not entirely sure that I've actually seen this particular device employed in any of the Kylie Brant Mindhunters books, except maybe two.  But this is a device we see in a lot of romantic suspense, nonetheless.  I suspect it's a means of making our main heroine "a special someone" in the story, without really hammering in the fact that she's "a special someone."

While I've never been entirely too thrilled about the main heroine being "special," in such a way, I think that this characteristic actually plays to Alexa's benefit.  Because, despite what Ethan thinks, I think she kind of knows that she's good at getting people to open up to her and let down their guards; and I think she knows that if she uses the right amount of charm, she could get any witness or interviewee to talk freely and comfortably.

And, of course, it's her being "a special someone" that will get our elusive serial killer to finally break his patterns and screw up enough to get caught... obviously.

Anyway...

Deep As The Dead encompasses one of the devices I love most about crime thrillers--a feeling of police procedural and togetherness on the force, where all of our players work together to find the killer and bring him to justice.  It's always intriguing to me, watching our main task force working together in this way, and also kind of bonding over their shared need to stop a monstrous killer.  There were amusing little asides and quips among the task force members, and great interactions.

The investigation was interesting enough to keep me hooked.  The little insights about the use of the insects was interesting.  Now, the whole thing about the killer seeing himself as "doing God's work," is probably an overused trope in crime thrillers, as it's a pretty common one employed.  Of course, it's often commonly used if only because it credible.

The romance between Alexa and Ethan was mature and sweet, tinged with the underlying pain of their history.  To be honest, there were all sorts of signs that an angsty love story was probably going to play out, but I'm actually kind of happy that the two were able to compartmentalize, set aside their feelings about the past, and work with each other.  Even when a few tidbits about their history surfaced, it didn't stop them from being professional; it didn't keep them from being mature about their situation.  It didn't keep the two of them from caring about each other as colleagues, or on a personal level.

It was a subtle, yet wonderfully handled second-chance romance; and the way it played out made me think that their parting really wasn't as angry as they had made it out to be, even if the circumstances were still heartbreaking.

Deep As The Dead is an excellently enjoyable new installment to the Mindhunters series.  And even while there are rather noticeable flaws in editing--typos, missing pronouns, missing words here and there, missing verbs--I found myself just moving on and disregarding those errors.  It's a little jarring at times, truth be told, to see an editing error, because I find myself backtracking at points to try to figure out what the sentence was trying to convey.  But it wasn't bad enough to make me truly upset with the book or it's unpolished publication.

This was a good romantic suspense.  And I look forward to Kylie Brant's next installation... or, in fact, her next book release, which I suspect isn't related to the Mindhunters series.


***


Halloween Bingo

This book could also count for:
-- Murder Most Foul
-- Serial Killer
-- Terrifying Women

Profile Image for Cindy.
2,348 reviews172 followers
October 10, 2017
I am still surprised sometimes by the sick and twisted things an authors mind can come up with. The Tailor was certainly imaginative in his killing ritual incorporating dragonflies and exotic bugs.

This being the 9th book in the series it was refreshing to meet a member of Raiker's Forensics team with a specialty I've never heard of – forensic entomology. Even though all things bug make me go ick it made for captivating reading. Also, kudos to the cover artist for a eerily accurate portrait of the book.

When you read a Mindhunters books you get a great police procedural, a forensic specialist in the field needed to solve the case and a romance.
Profile Image for Cassandra.
813 reviews10 followers
March 15, 2023
Another decent romantic suspense from this author with great narration from Bronson Pinchot again.

I'm kind of sad I've finished out this series.
Profile Image for Pam.
474 reviews
November 15, 2017
Love the Mindhunters series and this book was great. The Tailor is is a great character and so enjoyed Alexa and Ethan. This is a great story that pulls you in as they hunt for the Tailor. Full of suspense, murder and romance. I look forward to the next book
211 reviews3 followers
January 27, 2025
In the gripping crime thriller Deep as the Dead by Kylie Brant, a twisted serial killer stalks the streets, leaving a trail of bodies and cryptic clues in his wake.

As the body count rises, the police are baffled and the community is gripped by fear. Enter Cady Maddix, a tough, uncompromising detective determined to crack the case and bring the killer to justice.

But as she delves deeper into the investigation, Maddix finds herself drawn into a dark and dangerous game of cat and mouse, matching wits with a psychopath who always seems to be one step ahead.

Deep as the Dead is a riveting page-turner that will keep readers guessing until the very last page.
Brant masterfully ratchets up the tension and dread as the killer closes in on Maddix, weaving together police procedural details with insights into the warped psychology of a serial murderer.

While not for the faint of heart, fans of gritty, intelligent crime fiction will find much to love in this harrowing tale of one detective's quest to confront the depths of human depravity and stop a killer before he claims his next victim.
Profile Image for L..
599 reviews1 follower
June 25, 2022
This story has a similar plot idea to "Silence of the Lambs" and while not as gripping as that book it was enjoyable.
A psychotic killer who was inactive for many years has started killing again and its up to the Canadian Mounties and a profiler to catch him. He's been dubbed "The Tailor" because he sews his victims mouths up after enclosing a specific bug inside. There are lots of alphabet agencies that you don't have to keep track of to enjoy the story and it takes place in Canada so most of the place names weren't familiar to me. One of the Mounties and the profiler were married twenty years earlier, or more, and hadn't seen each other since their divorce, so that adds some edginess to the dynamics of the investigative group and the story. It does drag in some places as we're following along with the step by step procedures is takes for the case to be solved so I wouldn't say this is an edge of you seat type of story. But it is a good one and worth the read.
Thank you Kylie Brant for this novel and I will try another of your stories in the future.
Profile Image for Veronica Geyer.
55 reviews1 follower
February 19, 2025
This book started out a little slow. The author alluded to a history between 2 of the characters, but took a ridiculously long time getting to the heart of it.

Once the story got moving, my biggest issue was with the the narrator. One of the adult characters sounded like a robot. Most of the younger characters sounded like Beavis and Butthead. People don't really talk like that, so I spent more time rolling my eyes in annoyance than I did listening to what they were saying.

One of my biggest pet peeves is editing errors. "Unthaw" is not a word. In fact, if you were to "unthaw" something, you'd freeze it. 😑 There was no context to indicate that the antagonist would speak that way.

Overall, there were several OMG moments, a couple LOL moments, and one big AWE moment at the end, so it was entertaining enough.
Profile Image for Mojca.
2,132 reviews166 followers
June 13, 2018
The serial killer, known as the Tailor, has struck again. Three bodies in a span of just two weeks after three years of silence...

Ethan Manning knows the killer is escalating and he needs a task force. Fast. What he gets is one single forensic profiler that brings back memories both good and bad...



This series is now so far removed from the first few installments (which I loved), that I can barely believe it.

Bland characters with zero chemistry, a predictable (and unnecessary, in my opinion) conflict between the two leads, plodding pacing, and a very uninteresting villain.

A huge disappointment.
Profile Image for Rachelle.
525 reviews1 follower
March 5, 2018
A romantic suspenseful thriller about second chances, coping with abuse, living with pain without letting it define you, and the cycle of abuse. There is a realistic murder investigation with flashes of humor and a shared past, an engaging couple, passion, good suspense, and just enough history to build and establish a strong relationship in the present. Ethan and Alexa are both older, have lived apart and married others, but still feel a powerful pull towards each other. Ethan is driven, focused, and controlled, but he felt that Alexa took away his choice when she left him. Alexa is smart, insightful, and refused to let her stepfather erase her sense of self.
Profile Image for Davia.
832 reviews13 followers
October 23, 2017
Super twisted!

Talk about a twisted seriel killer! Wow. This one was great. I loved the entomology. Alexa was a very interesting woman. I still feel like we do not really know her just know about her. I believe that was intentional. Only Ethan has been able to breach that exoskeleton. Hahaha. But together they were a great crime solving team and couple. She really deserved a happily ever after so I am glad she realized what her life was missing. I adore the Mindhunter series! Bravo Kylie! Write On. Davia
Profile Image for Theresa.
172 reviews15 followers
June 11, 2020
Another major disappointment for this series, lacking both romance and suspense. Waking Nightmare is the first and best of the series; #3-5 are also decent reads, but after that, it's been nothing but disappointment (I can't comment on #2 or #8, as I haven't read those yet).
Profile Image for Night Runner.
1,542 reviews36 followers
February 25, 2021
Don't let the first hour dissuade you from finishing the story as it starts off very slow. The relationship between the MCs is solid with plenty of tension.

As with a of Kylie's storys, the bad guy is OTT and a wee bit nuts. The only part that drove me nuts is when the killer fixates on the h, she gets upset with the H and the team when they try to talk her out of making herself a target by ignoring common sense.
38 reviews
October 22, 2017
Worth the wait...

As a displaced Canadian it was refreshing to have the entire novel set in Canada, even though I caught one “Royal Mountain Canadian Police” reference. I continue to search out Ms. Brant’s new releases for good reason, they never fail to creep me out on some level. I recommend all her books thus far, certainly this one included. Loved it!
2,055 reviews25 followers
February 6, 2020
Twenty years after they parted RCMP Ethan Manning and Dr Alexa Hayden are reunited to solve a string of murders. When the killer becomes obsessed with Alexa, Ethan will do anything to keep her safe. This book was part of a series but could be read as a stand alone. It kept me turning the pages to see what would happen next. Plenty of suspense and romance for the reader.
Profile Image for Kara.
335 reviews1 follower
June 2, 2023
Really gonna miss this series! I thought it would end differently though, I expected all of the characters to end together somehow. A seriously missed opportunity, at least a check in! The story would have been five stars if not for ending a series unfinished. If another book comes out ill change this rating! I don't think that's happening though?
Profile Image for D.B. Reynolds.
Author 39 books2,366 followers
October 29, 2017
4 stars A tightly written thriller with a gruesome killer and multiple story threads. There's also a nice, if lightly touched, romantic angle, which I enjoyed. The book could have used a good proofreader.
5 reviews
October 31, 2017
Fantastic, want to know how it goes for alexa and ethan. Does he join the mind hunters or does she just quit and become a house wife.


He needs to join the company and they can work together. I think adams put people together for mulipurposes mainly cause he's a romantic
Profile Image for Angie.
128 reviews2 followers
July 19, 2021
this was one of the better books in the series. the main characters have history and not as much sex scenes to fast forward through. however, if you are listening to this book, stay away from your ALEXA devices because it will set off all your devices.
688 reviews3 followers
November 2, 2024
4.5 stars. I enjoyed all of the insect information. The villain is especially awful, but the two main protagonist were brilliant. I liked the differences between the Canadian and the U.S. law enforcement procedures. The secondary characters added color to the story. Well down
11 reviews
October 12, 2017
Good read

I enjoy the Mindhunters series. I like books about serial killers. Setting the locale in Canada was an interesting twist. I look forward to more books in this series.
Profile Image for Brenda Allen.
1,551 reviews4 followers
May 26, 2020
Great series from Kylie Brant. The way she mixes romance with terror is great. I love books that can make me cry about what is going on with the characters.
823 reviews9 followers
February 17, 2021
The "Mindhunters" series was an exceptionally satisfying group of stories. I hope, sometime in the future, it will continue on.
1,542 reviews2 followers
February 12, 2022
Everyone has a past that haunt them but Alexa, Ethan and the Tailor have pasts that made them different people set on a collision course.
2,480 reviews
books-boxed-sets
May 8, 2022
In boxed set - "Dangerous Touch: Ten Utterly Addictive Novels of Romantic Suspense"
64 reviews2 followers
October 27, 2022
Found another great author!!!!

I've had this book in my Kindle library for about 3 years. I've just now rediscovered her. I absolutely loved it!!!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews

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