Badass Bloggettes: ***COMING SOON *** VICTIMS 2 by Muriel Garcia

Part one of the Reaper Trilogy

Thriller & Suspense for readers over the age of 18

Blurb:

I am a monster.

I am evil.

I've done things that would shock the toughest cops.

I've done things that will send me straight to hell and put Satan to shame. I've done things that I shouldn't have enjoyed, but relished.

I've loved every single second of it.

I don't know the meaning of the word regret.

Why regret doing what needs to be done?

They had to die.

I am a monster.

I am evil.

I am unstoppable.

I am Helltown's worst nightmare.

This is who I truly am.

Amazon: http://mybook.to/vicmg

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/victims-muriel-garcia/1124065650

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/book/id1131121617

Kobo: https://store.kobobooks.com/ebook/victims2

Excerpt

There’s something very satisfying about chasing someone and scaring them so badly that they end up running around in circles without realizing it. Katherine has been doing this for the past hour and she doesn’t have a clue. I’ve been keeping my distance but following her general direction. I blend in with the darkness and the moonlight barely cuts through the thick blanket of trees surrounding us so I could get closer to her but it’s more fun to toy with her from afar. “Come here, Kitty Kat,” I whisper loudly enough for her to hear. She lets out a shriek, kindly letting me know just how scared she is. “You’re never going to make it out of here alive,” I call out a bit louder this time. I see her jump and quickly look around for me. She doesn’t spot me, and I’m not about to ruin the fun by revealing my position. I let her tire herself out to the point that she has to stop to catch her breath. She thinks she’s smart by hiding behind the biggest tree around, but I can see her. Only because I’m standing just a few feet in front of her and she still can’t see me. She’s leaning on the tree, trying to catch her breath while desperately looking around for me. I wish her phone was working so I could send her a picture of the view in front of me. That’d be a real mind fuck. “I can see you,” I whisper loudly again and once again she tenses. She carefully tries to peer around the tree to see if I’m over there. The density of the trees throws my voice so she has no idea where I could be. I take the opportunity to carefully creep closer to her but the dry branches and leaves would make it impossible for me sneak up on her silently. I intentionally step on a branch and her head whips around to see that I’m just five feet from her. She stares at me and screams with all her might before darting around to the other side of the tree. I laugh darkly at her feeble attempt to escape. “Somebody help me! He’s trying to kill me!” she yells, but nobody’s going to answer her. There’s no one around. There’s never anyone here in the middle of the night. It’s too dangerous. There’s a huge ravine and if you’re not careful, you’ll fall to your death. “There’s nobody around to hear you, Kitty Kat. We’re all alone.” I follow her and catch up to her quickly. She screams as she hears me approach, and in her panic she falls to the ground. She flips herself onto her back and scrambles backward as she throws rocks and branches at me, but they all fall short of hitting me. She throws a little harder and a few of the rocks fall to the ground a little too close for comfort, but I’m not worried. She’s my harmless little Kitty Kat.

This is one of those books that leaves me conflicted when it is over. Let me state upfront that Victims² is not a romance novel it is strictly a whodunit, thriller. For me, that isn’t a negative because I love a good murder mystery. There are a lot of positives with only a few negatives in my opinion. The story compares favorably to a good Criminal Minds episode. There is a sick serial murderer. We get in his mind, not from the behavioral profile team but from the murder’s thoughts and revelations.

The book is well written. Muriel Garcia does an excellent job of peeling off the many layers of sickness in the mind of “The Helltown Reaper” as the news dubs him. For most of the book, my stomach rolls, and my heart beat faster, in anticipation of what happens next.

The new partners of Detective Barnes, the senior member of the team, and Detective McKenzie the junior member are figuring out how to work together. There are issues they need to resolve from the beginning because Detective Barnes is paired with McKenzie after his longtime partner is killed in the line of duty. He is grieving. Also, McKenzie is a female and the long hours together, searching for a serial killer is hard enough on a relationship but throw in a female partner sharing those hours has the potential for the green monster to appear.

Some very fascinating twists make me shudder. This is a dark, gritty, criminal and his actions are sick. He believes he is making his victims pay for wrongs that they escaped punishment in the past. The author does a good job convincing me the procedures that the detectives, lab techs, ME, etc. follow are believable and necessary to catch the sicko. Now we get to the point where I’m conflicted. There are several places that I had to do the hand wave because the situation is a little far-fetched, but it isn’t enough of a leap to take away for the story.

I went into this story realizing it is a series. I didn’t understand, in this series, the culprit doesn’t get caught. I’m not a cliffhanger fan, as most know. I get that many of my favorite TV shows have serial murderers that take a season or more to wrap-up. I don’t have a problem with that because I know from the start that I can DVR those shows and watch them consecutively, or more often, I know it is only a week, or three months until my next fix. Getting to the end of this book made me angry. I have never read a procedural that left me hanging. For this reason, and this reason alone I deducted a star immediately.

In the end, I can say that Muriel Garcia has an interesting mind. She weaves a gripping story with Victims² that holds the reader’s attention from the beginning to end. I look forward to reading more from her, and I will be aware that she doesn’t have a problem leaving the reader hanging. Good job!

3.5 STAMPS

About the Author

Muriel Garcia grew up in Belgium. She loves music, tattoos, hot tattooed men, traveling, and cooking. She always had an overly imaginative and creative mind but never thought of writing a book up until a couple of years ago. Now she couldn't imagine not writing stories that are near and dear to her heart.