Cause to Kill (Avery Black #1) by Blake Pierce

Cause to Kill (Avery Black #1) Reviews

• 
  Matt

  After having Blake Pierce recommended to me, I was asked to try the Avery Black series, which is full of great thrills and packs a punch with its concise mysteries. In this series debut, Pierce introduces the reader to his protagonist, Avery Black. A former criminal defence attorney, Black left the profession after one of her clients—Howard Randall—was released and killed just to prove to his attorney that he was a serial killer. Now, an officer with the Boston PD, Black has scored a position on the coveted Homicide Squad. When a sorority girl goes missing after a Harvard party, her friends are baffled. This is nothing like her and she has no reason to disappear. When a body is discovered, the victim is the missing girl, but there is some form of natural drug in her system. This is substantiated when CCTV footage shows her wandering around with a mysterious man. Black and her team are baffled and push the limits to find clues, only to be faced with another victim from a different local college. There does not seem to be any tie between the two, leaving Black to ponder how to approach finding a suspect. She turns to Randall for some assistance, which is like playing with a nest of vipers. There is a chance that he could help, but Black runs the serious risk of being played yet again. With time running out and a killer on the loose, no one is safe. Black will have to check her pride at the door, while searching for this elusive killer. If that were not enough, Black is constantly reminded of how she walked away from her own family when things were at their most difficult. Pierce entices the reader well with this easy to read thriller that leaves them wanting more. Recommended to those who need a quick jolt with a short mystery. Perfect for the reader seeking a beach or travel read as well.
  
  This may have been my first Blake Pierce read, but it certainly will not be my last. I have read many mysteries in my day, but this one was both quick to read and easy to comprehend. Pierce adds twists throughout, but keeps the pace of the narrative such that the story does not get bogged down with too many details. Avery Black is a complex character that will surely take a while to unravel. Her backstory with the law is one that Pierce had better expand upon, both the legal career and the foibles with Howard Randall. It was this mistake that cost Black her family and makes the revelation of her estranged teenaged daughter, Rose, all the more interesting. Parachuted into the Boston PD Homicide Squad, Black will have to climb the ladder, hampered both with being a woman and for her sensationalized backstory. I am eager to see how things occur, as she is surely gritty and well-grounded when it comes to homicide work. There are others that surround Black and support her throughout this piece. I hope some cops and even civilian characters find their way into other books within this series, as there are many unanswered questions that Pierce has offered up in this debut. The story was strong and held my attention, so much so that I was able to devour this book in two days. I am glad to have six books within my grasp, as I will surely roll through them all and find breadcrumbs in each that will hopefully come together as a strong story arc. I will forge ahead with this series and see what else Pierce has in store. If all goes well, I may even have to find a few more of his series to read!
  
  Kudos, Mr. Pierce, for luring me in with this strong story. I cannot wait to see how Avery Black matures under your guidance.
  
  Love/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
  
  http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/
  
  A Book for All Seasons, a different sort of Book Challenge:
  https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
• 
  Hanna

  I find it curious how you can feel the difference between crime novels for free on Amazon and the ones that you will actually pay money for. In the beginning I was enthusiastic - reading is an expensive hobby if you have to buy every book you read - but I soon realised that there is a reason why those books are on Amazon for almost or literally nothing. It's simply because they are not that good. "Cause to kill" was one of them.
  
  The story would have had potential - a disgraced attorney turned homicide detective, a crazy serial killer that does it for the "All Spirit" - that was a good base. Avery Black, however, is not deep and interesting but mostly just annoying and her fellow cops seem as 2D as a sheet of paper. Stereotypes everywhere! Judging by the nature of the crimes, I should have been immersed in the story, desperate to know more. Instead, I found myself opening the book out of boredom when I had another hour on the train without anything more captivating to read.
  
  This has proven to me again that most good things don't come for free - and if you want to read decent books, you sometimes really have to buy them (unless they have them in the library!).
• 
  Alan Cotterell

  Impressive
  
  Avery Black was a defence lawyer, who was not very popular with the police. Then in a high profile case she had to change career. So what does she do? Joins the police force and works upto being a detective. She makes her own rules and ignores orders but gets the job done. As you read through more and more of her background about her family upbringing is revealed that shows what has made her what she is.
  I enjoyed this story not quite 5 stars, but close, maybe future books will get there.
  
  A new author for me, not for long I will definitely be adding the rest of this series and maybe some of the other series they have written.
  Thanks to the Sensational book club on Facebook for drawing my attention to this book.
• 
  Wissal H

  Après une vie pleine du succès professionnel autant qu’avocate fameuse et d’une belle petite famille Avery Blake a commit sa seule et fatale erreur qui a bouleversait sa vie à tout jamais !
  
  Avery était l’avocate d’un criminel dangereux mais elle était plus au courant de cette vérité jusqu’à jour où il commettait son crime suivant plus dangereux et plus grave que ses précédents !
  Là où tout le monde prenait Avery Comme complice et la seule responsable de ce meurtre puisqu’elle défendait son liberté auparavant!
  
  Et d’un seul coup sa vie était effondrée, et elle décidait de changer sa carrière et d’être membre de la criminelle , elle avait beaucoup de difficultés de dissimuler dans les équipes et d’être l’une parmi eux mais elle était capable de digérer les échelons aussi facilement et de résoudre toutes les enquêtes difficiles qu’elle étaient adressées exceptionnellement à Avery En mettant son intelligence et son sang-froid sous teste 🤨
  
  
  Quel Mystère Génial 👍🏼
• 
  A.J.

  I am actually blown away by the story! Amazingly insane plot twist and the characters are one of a kind!!!🤩
  
  Avey Black promoted to homicide Boston PD has a case in her hands the day she joined.
  
  A serial killer.😵
  
  
  Now what the killer does-- or he does that is just so insane, I mean WOW!!🤩🤩
  
  
  Three college girls are already dead and all the leads Avery had, had hit a dead end.
  
  The mayor is going loco. Captain O'Mally is trying hard to control his anger.
  Black's superviser, Conolley never really had a liking for Black.
  
  
  
  None of the people in A1 actually liked Avery.
  
  There were many rumours about her.🧐
  
  She had also made a HUGE mistake in the past. Her daughter and husband had disappeared from her life because of her ego and overconfidence and-- well yeah she was a messed up person living a messed up life-- crying over her past and trying hard to make amends.
  
  
  
  Trust issues, yes Avery never trusted anyone.
  
  Then how?? or who could she actually give in to?? who can help her with this case??
  
  
  Well, Ramirez and Finley are the men for this job.
  
  Ramirez, a dreamy and humorous fellow-- who sort of started to have a liking for Black and yes, the end had me in tears🥺-- ((TMI I'm simping over him-- he is soo similar to a person I know.. ;D)💜💜
  
  
  Finley, A so-called nuisance but becomes Avery's close friend and partner after Ramirez was hospitalised. A lazy fellow.. but at the same time extremely supportive and funny. 😄😄
  
  
  
  The reason for me giving it 4 stars was mainly because of the starting, It was quite lame and-- yeah I had to skip a few pages where the story was just going on and on about Black's depressed life as a divorcee and how she, once one of the top agents, became nothing but one of the most hated person in just one night.
  
  
  The author did an excellent job with the story line and I appreciate that.👍🏻🙂
  
  Final rating - 4.5/5
  
  Definitely recommended.💜
• 
  Jess☺️

  Cause To Kill by Blake Pierce is the first in the Avery Black series and it's definitely a great start, it's gripping, thrilling and a little disturbing all at the same time.
  I did start this as an audio book but was disappointed with the narration as it's a book set in Boston (America) and it has a very British narrater which put me off so swapped to the kindle addition.
  Definitely a series worth keeping up and can't wait for some more 📖
• 
  Rishika S.

  The basic story line of Cause to Kill has the potential to be an extremely good book. Its execution, however, does not let that happen. Its potential was wasted by problems such as bad characterization, weak connections between events, and an average writing style.
  
  The story's main protagonist, Avery Black, was quite annoying as a character. Her need for redemption for definitely stressed upon, but she did little to actually make it reality. She was as arrogant as she was earlier, while constantly reiterating that she was no longer the same person. For someone who was supposed to be brilliant, she made very stupid choices in spite of being aware of the repercussions, and then blamed life for being unfair. Not exactly the best behavior for someone whose main goal was to begin taking responsibility for her actions and decisions. Then there was the way she kept switching from serious to flirty to friendly to God-knows-what - you just could not get an idea of what she really was as a person. So associating with her was very difficult.
  
  Another annoying aspect was that Pierce seemed very keen on labeling her antagonist as a serial killer. And she went on to do so before the appearance of a second body and while the first case was still being worked upon as a personal crime. Serial killer based crime thrillers definitely have a following - but Cause to Kill did not unfold like one, it was just assumed to be one from the get-go, which gave the entire investigation a muddled-up feel.
  
  The story also seemed choppy. Some aspects could really have been elaborated upon to give it that well-rounded feel, but they were left short. As a result, the story felt like it was trying too hard on the unexpected twists, which ended up being abrupt, often pointless, and forced.
  
  Finally, the killer's motive and psychology were also not explored to their full potential. It began really well, with great promise, but wasn't really delved into or even bothered with, which left you with that uncomfortable this-story-didn't-end-in-a-neat-little-bow feeling. And it also just took away all the impact with which the killer's story had begun.
  
  What Cause to Kill did have going for it was the relatively fast pace and storyline which, at the very crux of it, was decently intriguing. That's why I would recommend it to:
  - people looking for a quick crime thriller junk read
  - hardcore crime thriller fans
  
  After the slight disappointment that this book was, I would not bother with the rest of the Avery Black series by Pierce. But, I had definitely enjoyed Once Gone more than I did Cause to Kill (you can check out my review for that book over here), so I may read some of her other series if I need a short and fast crime thriller fix.
• 
  DebbieDoesBooks

  I wasn't expecting to like this book as much as I did. Even though Avery Black upset me several times over her stupid AF decisions, I didn't hate her. She was very human and very much paying the price for being selfish. There were a few grammatical mistakes but I gave it a pass as it's an e book. I'm very much looking forward to the next book
• 
  SA Krishnan

  Interesting thriller.
  Avery Black was a defence attorney who quit her work after one of her client went into a murderous rampage after being released from prison; just to prove that he could kill.
  Now Avery Black is a cop and part of a homicide group.
  She is on the hunt of a killer and the story of the mystery and the hunt was very interesting with enough twists and turns till the very end.
• 
  Belinda

  4,5 stars Free kindle e-book. It is possible it contains spoilers.
  
  - The van pulled away and as Cindy's mind faded into darkness, her final thought was of her future, her bright, unbelivable future that had suddenly, horribly been snatched away-
  
  Avery Black works for the Boston police department. Before she become a police officer she was a defence lawyer.
  
  - We've got a dead girl placed on a bench in Ledermann Park, by the river. -
  - He had obviously spent a lot of time and planning to ensure she looked perfect. -
  - He had obvously spent a lot of time and planning to ensure she looked perfect. -
  
  Dylan Connelly, Avery's direct supervisor, they do not get allong straight away, but later do they get allong? Both their lives are a mess and they work and drink to forget. The caracters are well placed in the storyline. This book builts up the understanding of the laiding headcaracters. I like that a lot.
  
  - A picture of him had begun to form in her mind: queit, lonely, desperate for attention. A specialist with herbs and corpses. She ruled out an alcoholic or drug addict. He was too careful. -
  
  Ramirez is her perfect looking partner. Father and grandfather also are cops.
  Avery makes an assesment her partner does not see.....
  
  - and for the first time in a long time, Avery was able to mentally relax around a bunch of cops and try to focus. -
  
  The Author pictures out what goes on in the mind of the killer.
  
  - Stars were barely visible in the dark sky. He spotted one, then two and he wondered if the All Spirit lived in those stars, or if he was the sky itself, the universe. As if in answer, he was the image of the All Spirit, a darker shadow among the sky that seemd to encompass the entire sky -
  
  - She even imaigined she heard his voice: "You can come to me, Avery. I won't bite. Ask me your questions. Let me help you. I've always wanted to help. -
  
  Finley replaces Ramirez as part of the team of investigators.
  Avery is doing all she can to take this serial killer of the streets untill now he still is one step ahead of her. Avery trys to reconect with her daughter but fails. And here boss sets her on hold so she wents back to the murderer who costed her all as a defence lawyer and who played her before. Aldo she's off the case she wants to act. Still the ending of this book was a surprise to me up until the last pages of this book.
  
  
• 
  Cheryl

  This is a 4.5 star read.
  
  Impressive serial killer thriller.
• 
  Bagman

  Two and a half to three stars for those that enjoy a decent (not great) detective novel. This is a quick read. No deep story line with obscure clues, or complicated characters. This is more of a Wham, Bam, Gotcha Sam.
  
  I'm often confused about the difference (or similarity) between a mystery, thriller, or suspense novel. I'm thinking that this book falls neatly in the mystery category since the protagonist, Avery, is a detective tracking down a serial killer from the outset. Not a great deal of suspense, nor was it particularly thrilling.
  
  Here's the real trouble. If you've read Silence of the Lambs, you've already read this book. The similarities are hard to miss: a female detective with limited experience, and no experience with serial killers; a convicted serial killer, in prison, providing her with insights into the mind of the killer; a bizarre murder's house complete with pets, exotic plants and secret rooms. Again, the similarities, whether accidental or intentional, are striking. If I were Thomas Harris, I might be saying, "Hey, wait one minute here. . . "
  
  Anyway, it's short, quick, easy to read. You're not going to be highlighting a lot of sentences, or paragraphs for their outstanding literary quality. But, you won't be yelling obscenities at the publisher when you finish the last paragraph either.
• 
  Sara Jesus

  Um mistério policial que nos empolga e nos entusiasmada pela protagonista invulgar. Avery Black era uma advogada criminal quem vê a sua vida demorar quando salva a vida de um psicopata. Howard Randall que parece possuir um estranho fascínio por ela. É este psicopata, que possui uma estranha relação com Avery, que torna este drama policial intrigante.
  
  Avery possui um passado tenebroso. Um pai assassino. Uma mãe que a maltratava. Uma filha que sente mágoa dela. Agora ligada ao sistema policial, promovida a detective de homicídios ela tenterá de todo para redimir-se. O crime não me entusiasmou... Universitárias encontradas mortas... Um assassino com uma dezena de gatos... e plantas que utiliza nos seus crimes. Parece que comete os assassinatos para uma espécie de espírito superior.
  
  " Razão para matar" não é um suspense perfeito, mas nos permite refletir um pouco sobre a mente do ser humano e o que faz alguém a quer cometer tais crimes. Avery Black conquista-nos pelo seu trabalho exemplar como policia, e as sombras do seu passado.
• 
  z. imama

  The protagonist feels much like the Taylor Swift of detective investigator. Oh the drama. Eeeeeeeeeeeveryone hates her. Her bosses. Her colleagues. Her families. Her neighbors. EVERYONE. Even she gets tailed by paparazzi spreading gossips and nasty rumors and candid pictures when she's just a former disgraced attorney turned cop.. I just don't buy it.. like, really? This is what Western people do? Is this what British people do? If it is, then.. are you guys OK? Like, do you set your priorities right? Way too much hate and fucks are thrown at her that she basically has nobody professional enough to respect her at work without spitting insults or conducting nasty behavior. No one behaves like a civilized adult in getting along professionally here. But at the same time, no matter how 'miserable' her life has become, I really cannot sympathize with Avery Black because she's either having a shitty anger/mood management or wallowing in a self-pity party. Kinda wanted to give the book one more star because the sentences are quite easy to follow, but then... NAH.
• 
  Carsten Hansen

  This is the first book in the series about Avery Black, lawyer-turned-cop.
  This book really started to annoy me early on. The main character, Avery, having just joined homicide, makes a lot of really bizarre decisions to get her at odds with her colleagues and bosses. But on top of that, she reaches conclusion in her investigation that just leaps without any kind of foundation.
  Additionally, her fellow cops are described as almost caricatures of police officers, brawny, loud, almost as if unable to show normal human emotions.
  The conclusion of the book was somewhat satisfying, though not without some of the problems described above.
  Finally, the audio performance left something to be desired, I personally felt the choice of narrator was wrong, one with English accent was used for a story taking place in Boston...
• 
  Charley Girl

  Pretty good start. Avery Black is a downtrodden woman. She divorced her husband, isn't into motherhood, doesn't have any friends, lost her high-powered job as a lawyer and now if a detective. Wait, everyone at the police station hates her too. She cannot catch a break, well, except being tall, blonde, beautiful and smart as hell! She does have that going for her and it is the only thing that saves through this quite interesting mystery.
  
  I'll give the next one a read too.
• 
  Lynn Mccorry

  I’m still not sure what I think of this book.
  
  On one hand, it gripped me from the start. I didn’t want to put it down, it was interesting and I thought it was going to be really good.
  
  I was disappointed. I like murder mysteries where you have a chance of working out who the murderer is. This was not such a book. When the ending of the book came, it just came. Nothing special and it was over very quickly. I almost felt ripped off.
  
  Thankfully the book wasn’t a very long one. I would have been even more disappointed to have spent ages reading a book only to find out that the ending didn’t live up to what I was hoping it would.
  
  There were grammatical errors in the book. Not a lot but enough to make me notice and to annoy me.
  
  Parts of the book resembled ... way too closely ... a very well known and brilliant novel.
  
  I didn’t hate this book. It did keep me engrossed. I actually enjoyed it, until I got to the end. Then I just felt empty. There are more books in this series and I was excited about that until I finished this one. Now I’m not sure if I will be giving the next book in the series a go or if I will just end with the first one.
  
  If, unlike me, you don’t mind the fact that it’s not a book you can figure out, then you may well enjoy it a lot more than I did. However, if you like a challenge then I wouldn’t recommend it.
• 
  Denise

  The premise of this series - a former defense attorney turned homicide detective because she feels guilty for putting a serial killer back on the street to kill again - sounded pretty good, but the fact that not a single character in this book turned out to be even the slightest bit likable made this run-of-the-mill murder mystery rather a slog.
• 
  shannon

  Amazing!! Low Blake pierce has to be my favourite author love all the series
• 
  Mackenzie Thompson

  The ending to this was decent. I wasn’t completely happy with it but it was better than a lot of other endings I’ve read. It had closure and all loose ends were tied up. I didn’t like how the killer ended up being someone that wasn’t mentioned until Avery Black was on her way to arrest him. I liked how the book switched POVs and some from the perspective of the killer. Other than that aside from it taking me 5 months to read, it was a fairly good ebook (the first one I’ve ever finished) and I would recommend this to anyone who is looking for an engaging story where everyone at some point seems to be going crazy. It did keep me engaged and at some points I couldn’t stop reading.
• 
  Meka James

  First book of the year done. While I enjoyed Cause To Kill, I wasn’t overly wowed by it. Because I am trying books out of my preferred genre, I went into reading this with an open mind. On top of that, I like suspense/thrillers so it wasn’t a stretch for me to enjoy this book. My issue was the main character, Avery.
  
  I didn’t like her. Not even a little. I was happy to see a strong female lead as the main character for this series, but she just didn’t do it for me. I get because of her history, she had something to prove, but the huge chip she had on her shoulder made it hard to really empathize with. Her every interaction with the other characters was the same. She judged, looked down her nose at, and generally seemed to go out of her way to piss people off. And I don’t understand how she made it to detective with how she did police work. She had zero regard for procedure, or authority and just basically did what she wanted when she wanted because she was on to something. She was too robotic, uncaring, and full of herself. After what happened while she was a lawyer, I’d think she’d be a little more humble, but nope, not even a little bit. One scene in particular that ticked me off was her going to parent’s house of the last victim. There was no reason for that, I don’t care what she said to herself to justify why she was ‘asking permission’ I just thought it was beyond tactless. After that I was over her and all her other antics.
  
  On the upside, the plot was good. That kept me interested in wanting to know what came next. I liked the mystery of hunt in tracking down the serial killer. I like crime dramas and getting into the head of the villain. Learning their thoughts and motivations has an appeal so I was happy to see why the killer did what he did for the little time we were allowed in his head. I enjoyed the time spent with him more than the time with Avery and wished there was more. I would have enjoyed learning all of his motivations through him directly instead of being told why through the police.
  
  I’m not sure if I’ll read more of this series. Avery just grates on my nerves too much and the other characters in the book weren’t memorable enough for me to read to see how they fair in the remaining books.
  
• 
  Joe

  Al igual que Blake, solté un suspiro de alivio al terminar esta historia. Fue una lectura sencilla y rápida, con personajes diversos (incluyendo a un mexicano y a un afroamericano, cosa que se ve poco en libros escritos por estadounidenses; especialmente si cuentan con inteligencia, carisma y razonamiento).
  
  Me gustaron muchas cosas, como el desarollon personal de la protagonista o los casos en sí. Perooooo, fueron el asesino principal y Ronall (asesino responsable de la desgracia de la protagonista) los que hicieron que madrugara leyendo los capítulos sin descanso. De hecho, estoy segura que leería el segundo, incluso el tercer libro si es que podemos adentrarnos en la mente y perspectiva de Ronald.
  ¡ESTE HOMBRE TIENE UN PENSAMIENTO DIFERENTE Y NECESITO SUMERGIRME EN EL! No que sea un razonamiento éticamente correcto, pero sé que es fascinante y capaz de asombrarme.
  
  Por otro lado, el asesino principal (no mencionaré el nombre en caso de que pueda llegar a ser un spoiler) también tenía una manera de ver las cosas diferentes y me encantó como transformaba a sus víctimas, cual estatuas/pinturas artísticas. Sí que estaba mal de la cabeza y obviamente necesita tratamiento por alguna enfermedad mental, pero eso no me quita las ganas de saber más de él. ¿que desencadenó su instinto asesino?, ¿que fue de su infancia?, ¿tiene un tipo de filosofía de vida? QUIERO SABERLO TODO.
  
  En resumen, me gustaría tomarme un café con ambos asesinos para charlar. 🤧
  
  pero bueno, de vuelta al librooooooo.
  
  Si tuviera que resumir lo que siento en pocas palabras, sería así: 𝙥𝙪𝙙𝙤 𝙝𝙖𝙗𝙚𝙧 𝙨𝙞𝙙𝙤 𝙢𝙚𝙟𝙤𝙧. Por eso le doy tres estrellas. Lo disfruté y ganó puntos extras gracias a los personajes, sin embargo odié una cosa: la narración.
  
  No sé si fue la traducción del Inglés al Español, o el terrible trabajo de edición de la editorial (porque oooof, había muchísimas faltas de ortografía) pero definitivamente la narración arruinó todo para mí.
  El autor no es nuevo en lo que hace, ha escrito 3 series con 3 a 4 libros cada una, entonces, ¿por qué escribe así, tan no profesional? Durante toda la lectura sentí que algo faltaba. Fue una gran decepción.
  
  Los personajes son *chef kiss* pero la narración fue 👎👎
• 
  Courtney

  I am a huge fan of Blake Pierce and have devoured her other reads quickly - quite frankly, I think she can do no wrong! However, this was not a huge win for me. Avery Black is my least favorite of Pierce's strong female characters, and this novel fell a little flat for me. I didn't find Avery and all her flaws particularly likeable - she is a former defense attorney-turned-cop who is trying to make a name for herself in the homicide department while living with the fact that she got one of Boston's most prolific serial killers off, just so he could kill again. A new serial killer is tormenting Boston, and Avery is on the case. This time, the killer is draining the bodies and positioning them in life-like, odd positions and poses throughout the city. A number of leads turn out to be nothing until Avery, against her captain's orders, may have cracked the case. [I think another issue for me was that the Kindle version of this story is very poorly edited, so I found myself re-reading sentences to make sense of things.]
• 
  Ivy - Hearts Books.

  After reading Once Gone by the same author, Cause to Kill deserves 5 stars! Imagine your whole life imploded and I do mean your entire life. Instead of finding a quiet country house and living off the land you decide to do the complete opposite - change your career and join those who loathe you for having successfuly dismantled their cases for a living. The author managed to make Avery's character authentic although danced on the fine line multiple times. I actually liked Avery albeit her death wish. She is a strong woman who decides to be very brave after a hard fall. It was worth reading and getting to know in the end how Pierce brought it all together.
  Quick question, do all Pierce's books feature women getting killed and women with a death wish trying to get justice for them? (What happened to gender equality in literature? lol!)
• 
  Shari Shepard

  Good Book & Quick Read
  
  This was my 1st book from Blake Pierce & I enjoyed it. The story pulled me in right from the begining, but it was not an I-can't-put-it-down book. The main character, Avery Black, is a likeable detective, looking for redemption after falling from grace as a lawyer. None of her co-workers understand her, therefore don't like her. I found most of the smaller characters boring & appeared to be somewhat of a cliche, but that didn't detract from the story. I like Blake's style of writing, though there weren't any twists & turns. This is a mystery, police procedural or drama book, but definitely not suspense or psychological thriller. I will definitely be reading more books in this series, as well as other books from Blake Pierce. There could have been more in depth characterization, but all in all it was a good read.
• 
  Leslie

  I wanted to know how it ended, so I kept reading. It would make an okay episode of a show like Law and Order or something like that. Overall, though, I didn’t find it very original. Aside from Avery, all the characters were so flat. It seemed very heavy-handed with what a pariah she was on the police force. There were some parts that seemed way too ridiculous—while looking for a serial killer, Avery has a suspect who is a registered sex-offender, and she finds all this kiddie porn on his work computer; instead of arresting him, or taking him in for questioning, she decides he couldn’t possibly be the killer, gets told off by his boss, gets in trouble with her boss, and feels bad about bothering this guy. Really???
  
  This author also really needs a better editor. His extreme overuse of passive voice was excruciating.
• 
  Grace Backler

  Annnnnd that's it. That is officially the last time I dapple with any Blake Pierce work. I know I've said it before but I've deleted all Pierce's works that I had downloaded. It's unfortunate that every single book is the same;
  - somewhat broken woman in a line of police/detective work trying to redeem themselves
  - getting themselves assigned to a case that could save them
  - breaking direct orders from their superiors
  - taken off the case
  - breaking more orders and then finding the offender
  - being hailed a hero
  I just can't read it anymore.
• 
  Nicole

  I had a hard time with this one, took me almost 4 days to read it and usually a book this size less than a day. I just didn't like Avery, or how the police dept was ran. The case was interesting but the characters I did not like. I will probably continue the series because I did start to like her at the very end. :)