FBI Agent Jo Pullinger arrives in Seattle, Washington. She is grateful to leave behind her old life. One that involved having a transplant of a killer’s heart.
When a wealthy family is murdered in their mansion, the daughter’s boyfriend is taken into custody. He was found at the scene of the crime, cradling the daughter’s body, with the murder weapon at his side.
Jo’s instincts tell her the boyfriend is not guilty, even though, all the evidence is stacked against him. It’s an uphill battle for Jo, to not only convince her superiors but also to convince her new partner, Seattle PD Detective Bryan Ford.
As Jo digs deeper, she finds herself in the middle of a deeper conspiracy. Where, no one is safe—not even the people she loves!
Fans of James Patterson, David Baldacci, and Harlan Coben will love this new series!
Praise for the Jo Pullinger
“If you enjoy FBI stories then you will love this book.”
“So many twists and turns! Couldn’t put it down!"
“An outstanding cast of characters, non stop action, mystery, intrigue and a very well written story line make this a must read!”
“Nobody makes the pages fly by faster than Thomas Fincham!”
"Get ready for a suspenseful, bumpy ride. Just when you think you have it figured out...nope, you don't."
THOMAS FINCHAM holds a graduate degree in Economics. His travels throughout the world have given him an appreciation for other cultures and beliefs. He has lived in Africa, Asia, and North America. An avid reader of mysteries and thrillers, he decided to give writing a try. Several novels later, he can honestly say he has found his calling. He is married with two kids, and he lives in a hundred-year-old house. He is the author of LEE CALLAWAY series, the HYDER ALI series, the MARTIN RHODES series, and the ECHO ROSE series.
I couldn’t put it down, as I read 3 hrs every night and I was engrossed. Thanks Thomas, now I have read all of your books and this one put the frosting on the cake. Diabolical! There aren’t enough words to say how good all your books are, and being 90 years old I hope to enjoy a lot more.
Where was the editor on this one? The story wasn't bad. The writing a bit simplistic. But every other page had one character or another SMIRKING. Apparently neither the writer nor the editors know how to use a thesaurus.
Easy read, well crafted story but the protagonist is a bit of a superhero. I will try a few more by the author I am cautiously optimistic that it will improve.
I loved the book. No questions about it because there was a strong central character and a stronger plot line to run with. But I couldn’t help but wonder whether the whole “heart” thing had an actual purpose to the base plot. If you have noticed in the book synopsis, what the book focuses more is on the fact that our central character has a killer’s heart. Like the literal heart of a killer. I couldn’t help but expect that this factor would come into play somewhere in the book. But unfortunately, it didn’t. Or if it did, it does so in a very vague or inconspicuous manner. That was the only thing I had to complain about the book because the rest of it was good
The plot is at its best with things pulling and pushing at the right instances keeping the intrigue intact in the book. The clues and events are easy to follow and the pretty realistic and practical aspect of the sleuthing process makes it very easily consumable and enjoyable. As I said leaving apart the fact that I thought that the whole heart angle was meant to be more than what it was, the rest of everything in the book played well to tell an exciting story.
In conclusion, I would say that if you want a good old FBI crime investigation read, then you can rely on this book. It has a good plot, a nice pace and characters that are easy to comprehend and resonate with. There is enough fodder to feed both your mind and brain in the book. So yeah overall a good old nice thriller with a female investigator with “Killer’s Heart” in the lead.
Jo Pullinger has a strong character and determined will to do whatever it takes to solve the cases she works. This story is well written and flows smoothly. I gave five stars because it is a quality piece of work. If you enjoy FBI stories then you will love this book. I found myself thinking about the story while working and could not wait to get back to reading.
Get ready for a thrilling ride! Thomas Fincham draws you right into this story. I was completely hooked and could not put it down.
A Killer’s Heart is a fast paced novel full of action and suspense! With remarkable characters that jump off the pages, you get so invested in the story.
If I based this rating strictly on the writing, I would have given it one star or less. Fortunately, the story line was interesting enough to finish it. But I have to say it felt like a really poor imitation of a Nancy Drew story. I kept thinking it was something that would have been written by a teenage girl in high school.
The spoilers are minor and do not tell you who committed the crime or why.
I'm not sure how this series is so highly rated. It does have some positives. The pacing is decent. The story line is fine, although you know who it is for a long time, but you don't know the why of it until the end. There are two minor twists. One was extremely obvious.
For starters, I think special agents in the FBI are probably pretty picky about that "special" part of their title. The book is inconsistent with including that word. I understand it would be cumbersome to always use it, but there are multiple times when Jo is introduced without it. And there is a significant difference between special agents and plain agents. I've never read an FBI series where it wasn't made clear the agent was a special agent.
I think it's their second day on the case when Ford picks up Jo at 8 am and they go to talk to one witness in town. Afterward, he drops her off, she updates her boss on the interview, and leaves for the day. Somehow the 30 minute at most interview and updating the SAC took her from 8 am to evening again. I reread it to make sure I didn't miss anything.
The teenager killed is repeatedly stated to be 16, even by the ME. Her gravestone lists her life from December 29, 2006 to April 3, 2022. That would make her 15. In addition, and this is a small thing, gravestones, in my experience, take weeks or months to be engraved and installed. Maybe you jump to the front of the line if you're rich when you die.
The guy the teen had been dating went to public school and that's one reason her parents disapproved of him. They make a big deal of how he kept showing up at the private school the girl attended and that security had to force him to leave. (These weren't stalking incidents. He was showing up to take her to lunch, etc.) Late in the book, the sad teen reminiscences about meeting her in world history class. Not sure how that happened from different schools.
When they try to call the person they know to be the murderer, someone else answers the phone at the residence who is unrelated. It is written as the phone belonged to the residence and not the individual, which has never been the case unless it is a dorm or some place that would provide a phone line, which is highly unlikely. Even with landlines, numbers followed the individual when possible or were shut off when not.
The first minor twist that most will see coming is based on some math that Jo does. The math doesn't add up, other than it being in the very bague ballpark. I apologize for being cryptic, but that's to keep it from being much of a spoiler.
The last blunder I noticed was the teen who didn't kill the family, which is obvious from the blurb, joins the military just a couple of weeks after the case ends and is leaving for basic the next day. There are multiple issues with this. One, the military won't take someone who hasn't graduated from high school. At one point, they wouldn't take someone with a GED without a high ASVAB score, the latter of which he could have had, but he didn't have the former. For those the military does take, it's usually months before they're shipped off. I've seen a lot of friends' teens join recently, and it's never 2 weeks after they sign up.
I won't even bother with what seemed questionable on police procedure, and I'm sure a police detective or a special agent with the FBI would have a laundry list of errors, but that's probably true with most crime thrillers.
There were some minor grammatical errors. I'm wondering where the author has lived that he refers to headlights on cars as headlamps.
Some of these issues I could see with an author's first book, but this wasn't. While it is most important for the story to be engaging, and it mostly was, a good editor should have caught most of this. It certainly isn't professional quality.
I read the reviews complaining about the number of times "smirk" was used. I used the search feature, and it came up 7 or 8 times each in book 1 and book 2.
I'm going to try book 2 to see if it is an improvement.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
FBI Agent Jo Pullinger is moving to Seattle to be with her brother and his family and also continue working with the FBI. Jo is unique, she has the heart of a serial killer! Sometimes Jo thinks that her heart gives her special feelings as to what might be happening in a case.
In this one, she is one a case where a family was murdered, and the one that is accused of killing them, was found in the daughter's room, with a gun, and holding the dead girls body.
Now Jo has been sent to investigate and prove that they do have the right person in custody, as this was a high profile, well known family. She teams up with Seattle police Detective Bryan Ford.
Really great book and very good ending I didn't see coming!
A weird sort of book. The protagonist has a back story involving her father, as well as the story of how she received her heart transplant, but the author never satisfactorily explains them. Jo is a rather flat, uninteresting and not very likeable character. I'm also fairly sure that having a transplant and requiring immunosuppresive drugs (she takes none in the story) would relegate her to desk duty, if not mandatory retirement, but whatever. The plot makes a U-turn to a poor unfortunate bad guy. The prose is choppy. Aside from a few weak intuitive feelings, the story has nothing whatsoever to do with "a killer's heart," and it is definitely not a "thriller."
About a hundred years ago, police laboratory scientists discovered what is now known as forensic firearms identification discipline. In short, a fired bullet and a fired cartridge case can be identified as having been (or not) fired from a particular firearm. Seattle Police through the Washington State Patrol laboratory and the FBI have great specialists in this particular field. It would be unheard of not to have all firearms evidence collected at the first triple murder scene which would easily eliminate the Morris boy as .the person responsible for it. Perhaps a small point in otherwise excellent book, but working like a burr under the saddle, if you know what I mean
Agent Jo and Detective Bryan… a great partnership…
I got to meet Special Agent Jo and Detective Bryan, who were partnered to solve a series of murders… what a team! This was a page turner… a not-to-be-put-down book! Every spare minute I could find had me reading this book. Lots of action, twists and turns. As soon as things started to come together, a new development created another facet of inquiry. Agent Jo wouldn’t settle the case until she was certain that there was no doubt about the facts of the case. She and Detective Bryan were on the same page quite often.
Sorry… I don’t want to spoil your reading… you’ll just have to read it yourself! Be sure you can push everything else to the side while you’re reading this! Enjoy!
I got taken into this story about Special Agent Jo Pullinger, and found it was interesting throughout. Even though I had sort of figured out the "reasons" behind the murders the book is based on, it was enjoyable. I cut the stars down for editing reasons. Certain things the author wrote people just don't say - whether a single word or a whole phrase, he made these errors all the way through. Then police procedural foul ups! Then there are many grammatical problems too, but thankfully the spelling is pretty good. So yep, in some areas the editing really stunk! I hope future books see these problems fixed. Then the author would really have five star books: go for quality, not quantity!
Jo transferred to be closer to her brother and his family. First day in the office, she’s asked to pair up with, Ford, a local detective to investigate the deaths of a family of three, including a teen girl. The girl’s boyfriend was arrested at the scene and charged with the murders! A “ slam dunk” is the verdict of local authorities! Jo is not so sure. As Jo and the detective work together to sort it all out the boyfriend is cleared. Then an attempt is made on his life! What’s going on, can the killer be stopped before anyone else gets hurt or killed? Can Jo and Ford stop him?
Not my normal reading subject matter. I only pulled down a sample and read some of it for my sister, who loves FBI crime novels. But doggone it! After the first page I was hooked. So I pulled down the entire book and told my sis she'd have to wait. Characters revealed themselves right away. And then it was action almost constantly. No pages and pages wasted on characters ruminating about "stuff". And thank you Lord, no romance to speak of!!!! I hate romance novels. But this one kept me guessing and anticipating for 354 pages. Can't wait to pull down the next in the series.
Jo is back. New town and new team, but same amazing family and skills. The new town and team are full of characters m, especially the young agent and the taxi driver. The storyline with Sam was scary, but worked out eat. The partnership with a detective was good and I liked the friendship and trust that they built. The case was evolving and growing the whole book and the ending was not expected. Kept me engaged and entertained trying to figure it out! Can’t wait for more.
This was the first book I've read by this author. It was very good. There were twists I didn't see coming, which I really appreciate.
The character development was quite good. They were relatable and believable.
My issue came down to grammar and technical issues.
Here's an example: Pg 248. Ford said, "How do you know Morris?" It should have said,"Walsh." Morris was the kid initially accused, but Walsh was the actual suspect that Jo and Bryan were looking for. That should have been caught by a good editor.
Other than that, I would definitely recommend this book.
A Kliier’s Heart is good crime fiction from me worth 4 stars. It takes place in contemporary Seattle which adds to the story but not as much as it could have. All the action is on dry land. And there’s plenty of action. The story is kick started with the murders of a CEO, his wife and daughter. More to follow. The main character is FBI Agent Jo Pullinger, single female workaholic. She partners up with Seattle P.D. Detective Bryan Ford chasing a deranged killer in the shadows of Seattle. This book is the first of 11 in the Jo Pullinger Series.
Starting a new job the first day threw Jo for a loop, especially after meeting her grunchly partner Detective Ford. 3 people shot to death and a teenager in custody is an awakening for them to start with. Those 3 stretched into a few more bloody incidents. With her enhanced reputation at stake a few sleepless nights became the norm. With assistance from a young and eager FBI associate, many other incidents faced the duo with a logical outcome. Great story line so thanks TF.
Jo Pullinger is an FBI agent who partners with Seattle PD Detective Bryan Ford to solve a triple murder. The case appears to be open and shut until Jo starts poking at things that don't add up after she meets the teen originally arrested for the murders.
A Killer's Heart is a good story, even though it had a slow start. The characters were believable and strong. An interesting twist was that Jo had a heart transplant, and the heart she received was from a serial killer. I wasn't a fan of the military-bashing since I am a veteran myself, along with most of my family.
A Killer's Heart: FBI Mystery Thriller (Jo Pullinger Book 1) 5-* from Brenda Hawkins on June 3, 2022 Great writing FBI Agent Jo Pullinger is called to Seattle to consult on triple homicide. The local PD has a suspect in custody with all the evidence stacked against him, but soon it starts to unravel. So many twists and turns! Couldn’t put it down! Looking forward to the next book...
I loved this book! It's an excellent start to a murder mystery series. Really enjoyed the characters, especially Jo Pullinger. I look forward to her evolution as the main character of this series. The support characters were equally exciting and give much to look forward to! Thank you, Mr. Fincham, for sharing your talent with your reader's world!
A great storyline with a twist, definitely recommend. FBI agent Jo Pullinger is called into a case where a family is murdered and the ex boyfriend is found next to the body's with a gun, the local police think its an easy case but Jo doesn't believe them and starts to investigate further with the local police against her. Loved Jo's character. A must read.
Jo Pulling we had just arrived in Seattle for her job with the FBI. On her first day she was given a case where a family of three were murdered. Together with a Seattle Police Detective, they followed many leads to dead ends before the surprise conclusion of the case.
What a good start to this series. A unique main character with a heart transplant from a serial killer and able to be an effective FBI agent. The plot moved quickly, not to many twists but the author kept things interesting. The ending did tie up loose ends. Looking forward to reading more in this series.
Kept stopping and starting this book. Terrible writing with all kinds of mistakes throughout. Plot was passable. Twist was not that surprising. Lots of illogical things. Characters were okay but limited. The whole premise with “the killer’s heart” was never explained. Most of it was so “meh.” Cannot recommend this novel.
A Killer's Heart, by Thomas Fin ham is a good first in his mystery/thriller series. Fast paced action, great character development, and a compelling storyline are all things that I look for when choosing a book. Lucky me, there is a back list of Fincham 's work!
I look forward to time off to dig into one of Thomas Fincham’s new books. I really enjoy how things aren’t always as they seem and his books keep you guessing. Highly recommend this book.
I was given an ARC and am voluntarily leaving an honest review.