Book Review: UNSUB by Meg Gardiner
/24 Comments/by SuzanneAlso by this author: Into the Black Nowhere
Series: UNSUB #1
Published by Dutton on June 27th 2017
Genres: Mystery, Thriller
Pages: 366
Also in this series: Into the Black Nowhere
Source: Purchased
Amazon
Goodreads
MY REVIEW:
Meg Gardiner’s UNSUB is my first read for the 2018 Beat the Backlist Challenge and I have to say I don’t think I could have possibly picked a better book to start with. UNSUB is a riveting serial killer thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat from the first page to the last, and not only that, but it will also have you screaming for the next book in the series because it ends with a cliffhanger that will blow your mind.
UNSUB follows a cold case that features a serial killer called The Prophet that appears to have been inspired by the Zodiac Killer. The Prophet terrorized residents of the San Francisco Bay area for several years, leaving behind a trail of bodies, each with the ancient symbol for Mercury etched into its flesh, and accompanied by cryptic messages that were seemingly impossible to decode. Not only did The Prophet excel in committing increasingly gruesome murders, but he also took immense pleasure in playing mind games with both the families of the victims and with local law enforcement, particularly the lead investigator on the case, Mack Hendrix. The Prophet was never caught, but he left a trail of wreckage in his wake, including Mack Hendrix, who lets the killer get too far into his head and ends up in a psych ward for six months. By the time he is released, his career and his marriage are over, and his relationship with his daughter Caitlyn appears to be on the same path.
Fast forward more than twenty years and bodies suddenly start turning up in the Bay area again, complete with the Mercury symbol and more cryptic messages. All signs point to either a return of The Prophet or else they have a copycat killer on their hands. It’s all hands on deck to stop the killer as soon as possible, only this time it’s not Mack Hendrix on the case. Instead, it’s his daughter, Caitlyn Hendrix, who like her father, has joined the police force. Caitlyn is a rookie cop who typically works in narcotics, but because she possesses extensive knowledge of The Prophet’s original case, as well as access to the biggest resource of all, her father, she ends up being assigned to the new case.
Caitlyn immediately seeks out her father, but he is understandably reluctant to help. This case has already destroyed his life once and he doesn’t want to let it in his head again. And he most certainly doesn’t want The Prophet to target his daughter and ruin her life as well. Caitlyn chooses to ignore her father’s pleas that she stay far away from the case. She is determined to capture this killer and bring him to justice, not just because of all of the murders he committed, but also because he haunted her childhood and destroyed her family as well.
Is this killer actually The Prophet returned or are the police just dealing with a clever copycat? Whoever it is, can Caitlyn find and stop him? And most importantly, can she work the case without letting this killer get inside her head, thus avoiding the mistakes her father made?
There’s so much to love about this book. Serial killer cases have always fascinated me, as do shows like Criminal Minds, where so much emphasis is placed on behavioral analysis and building profiles of the killers law enforcement is trying to catch. In many ways, UNSUB reads like an episode of Criminal Minds, which made it a great fit for me.
I loved the pacing, the constant building of suspense as more and more bodies piled up, along with more and more of those cryptic messages. The author’s use of those messages was actually one of my favorite parts of the book. At times, I felt just as desperate to decipher them as Caitlyn and her team did. There was something so familiar about them, yet their overall meaning felt just out of reach, and it was maddening at times but, man, did it keep me turning the pages!
Caitlyn Hendrix was also a big draw for me. I really liked this character and thought Gardiner did a wonderful job fleshing her out and giving her more depth than I was initially expecting from this kind of book. She’s smart and tough, with great instincts for her job, but then there’s also a touch of vulnerability to her because of the way The Prophet case has impacted most of her life and strained her relationship with her father. I loved the exploration of the father-daughter relationship that we get throughout UNSUB too. I think it adds a layer of emotional depth to the story without distracting from the serial killer case itself. That personal touch really took the book to the next level for me and made it a much stronger read than if it had been a straight procedural.
That cliffhanger ending! I’m kind of kidding here because the cliffhanger in UNSUB is actually brilliant, but I just hate cliffhangers so much. Thankfully I was approved for an ARC of the second book in the series so I was able to jump right in and continue this gripping story.
UNSUB is truly an outstanding read. If you’re into serial killer thrillers, you won’t want to miss this one!
GOODREADS SYNOPSIS:
A riveting psychological thriller inspired by the never-caught Zodiac Killer, about a young detective determined to apprehend the serial murderer who destroyed her family and terrorized a city twenty years earlier.
Caitlin Hendrix has been a Narcotics detective for six months when the killer at the heart of all her childhood nightmares reemerges: the Prophet. An UNSUB—what the FBI calls an unknown subject—the Prophet terrorized the Bay Area in the 1990s and nearly destroyed her father, the lead investigator on the case.
The Prophet’s cryptic messages and mind games drove Detective Mack Hendrix to the brink of madness, and Mack’s failure to solve the series of ritualized murders—eleven seemingly unconnected victims left with the ancient sign for Mercury etched into their flesh—was the final nail in the coffin for a once promising career.
Twenty years later, two bodies are found bearing the haunting signature of the Prophet. Caitlin Hendrix has never escaped the shadow of her father’s failure to protect their city. But now the ruthless madman is killing again and has set his sights on her, threatening to undermine the fragile barrier she rigidly maintains for her own protection, between relentless pursuit and dangerous obsession.
Determined to decipher his twisted messages and stop the carnage, Caitlin ignores her father’s warnings as she draws closer to the killer with each new gruesome murder. Is it a copycat, or can this really be the same Prophet who haunted her childhood? Will Caitlin avoid repeating her father’s mistakes and redeem her family name, or will chasing the Prophet drag her and everyone she loves into the depths of the abyss?
About Meg Gardiner
Meg Gardiner is a bestselling, Edgar Award winning author. A former lawyer and lecturer at the University of California, she’s also a three-time Jeopardy! champion. Born in Oklahoma, she grew up in Santa Barbara, California, and lives in Austin.
China Lake won the 2009 Edgar award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best Paperback Original. The Nightmare Thief won the 2012 Audie Award for Thriller/Suspense audiobook of the year. Phantom Instinct was named an O, the Oprah magazine, “Best Books of Summer.”
Meg’s latest novel, UNSUB, has been bought for development as a major television series by CBS.
Find Meg on Facebook: Facebook.com/MegGardinerBooks Twitter: @MegGardiner1 and Instagram: @Meggardiner1.
Can’t Wait Wednesday: Spotlight on GOODBYE, PERFECT from Sara Barnard
/30 Comments/by Suzanne
“Waiting On” Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted at Breaking the Spine, which encourages fellow bloggers to spotlight upcoming releases that we’re excited about. It is a meme that I have loved participating in for over a year now, but as Jill is no longer actively posting, from now on I’ll just be linking to Can’t Wait Wednesday, hosted by Tressa, which is a spinoff of the original WoW meme.
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My selection for this week is Goodbye, Perfect by Sara Barnard. I’m excited for this book because I just finished my first book from Sara Barnard last week, A Quiet Kind of Thunder, and fell in love with the way she develops such amazingly realistic characters and with the way she writes about friendships. I was ecstatic to learn that she has another book coming out and that I only have to wait a few weeks to get my hands on it!
GOODBYE, PERFECT by Sara Barnard
Publication Date: February 8, 2018
From Goodreads:
When I was wild, you were steady . . .
Now you are wild – what am I?
Eden McKinley knows she can’t count on much in this world, but she can depend on Bonnie, her solid, steady, straight-A best friend. So it’s a bit of a surprise when Bonnie runs away with the boyfriend Eden knows nothing about five days before the start of their GCSEs. Especially when the police arrive on her doorstep and Eden finds out that the boyfriend is actually their music teacher, Mr Cohn.
Sworn to secrecy and bound by loyalty, only Eden knows Bonnie’s location, and that’s the way it has to stay. There’s no way she’s betraying her best friend. Not even when she’s faced with police questioning, suspicious parents and her own growing doubts.
As the days pass and things begin to unravel, Eden is forced to question everything she thought she knew about the world, her best friend and herself.
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I’d love to hear what upcoming book releases you’re waiting on this Wednesday? Leave me your link in the comments below and I’ll stop by and check out your CWW selection for this week. 🙂
Top Ten Tuesday – My Top 10 Bookish Goals & Resolutions for 2018
/51 Comments/by Suzanne
Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Top Ten Tuesday has been one of my favorite memes ever since I started blogging, so huge thanks to Jana for taking over the hosting duties!
This week’s TTT topic is Bookish Resolutions/Goals for 2018. This is a topic that has been on my mind a lot lately since we’re at the start of a new year. I did pretty well with most of my goals last year, but there’s definitely always room for improvement.
Here are some areas that I hope to work on for the upcoming year…
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MY TOP TEN BOOKISH RESOLUTIONS/GOALS FOR 2018
1. GET BETTER ABOUT SCHEDULING AHEAD (I.E. STOP PROCRASTINATING!)
Procrastinating is probably one of my worst habits as a blogger and it’s something I really need to work on. I finally started using the built-in Schedule Posts feature on my blog late last year, but thus far, I’ve not been very good at scheduling more than a few days ahead. I’d like to work toward having at least 2 weeks’ worth of posts scheduled at all times. I’m a procrastinator at heart but if I can improve on this, it will make my life so much easier.
2. MAKE A DENT IN THE ENORMOUS PILE OF UNREAD BOOKS THAT I ALREADY OWN.
Between the physical books in my house and the e-books on my Kindle, I probably have enough unread books to keep me busy for at least a couple of years. It’s time to really do something about that, both in terms of reading more of them and in purging the ones I’m just not interested in reading anymore. I’ve joined the Beat the Backlist Challenge again this year in hopes that it will keep me motivated to achieve this goal.
3. WRITE MORE DISCUSSION POSTS.
This was one of my goals last year as well and while I did okay with it, I’d like to do better this year. Part of my issue last year in addition to the eternal struggle to come up with topics to write about is that because of my extreme procrastination (see Goal 1), I never seem to have enough time to actually sit down and write discussion posts. If I can get Goal 1 under control, hopefully there will be more time to work on discussion posts. I also joined a discussion challenge in hopes of facilitating this goal.
4. FINISH MORE SERIES.
This goal kind of ties in with Goal 2. I have so many series where I read the first book, loved it, purchased the next books, and then nothing… Since I am also constantly starting new series, it’s time to finish up some of those that have been lingering for ages.
5. REQUEST ARCS MORE SELECTIVELY.
Now that I’ve been consistently reviewing for almost 2 years, I have been getting approved for a lot more ARCs than I used to. I’m starting to reach that point where I have too many sitting in my queue waiting to be read and because I don’t want my ARCs to turn into the same problem I have with older books, I want to work on being more selective about the ARCs I request. I’d love to be able to keep my Netgalley percentage at 80% for more than 10 minutes, lol.
6. READ AND PROMOTE MORE DEBUT AUTHORS.
I guess this one is self-explanatory but I also signed up for a challenge to motivate me to achieve this goal. I’m hoping to read at least 12 debut authors this year.
7. CONSISTENTLY POST AT LEAST 5 TIMES A WEEK.
I’m pretty confident that I will never be one of those bloggers who is able to post everyday. I’m just not a good enough planner for that, and I know I’d be setting myself up for failure to even attempt it. I managed to post at least 4 times a week all last year and sometimes even made it up to 5 or 6 posts on weeks where life wasn’t too chaotic. I’m aiming for 5 posts every week this year. Fingers crossed!
8. STOP COMPARING MYSELF TO OTHER BLOGGERS.
This is probably as much a mental health goal as it is a blogging goal, but I want to really focus on just doing my own thing and not comparing myself to other bloggers. My favorite part about blogging, aside from the community itself, is that there really is no right or wrong way to blog. When I first started blogging, I remember reading comments out on social media from fellow bloggers “I don’t understand why some bloggers do __________.” (fill in the blink with the nitpick of your choice). Comments like that used to stress me out and make me second guess everything I was posting and feel like a failure. After almost two years of blogging, however, I’m getting better about ignoring comments like that. Once I was able to do that, I started enjoying blogging so much more. I want to continue that trend this year.
9. REMEMBER REAL LIFE IS GOING TO GET IN THE WAY OF BLOGGING SOMETIMES & THAT’S OKAY.
This goal ties in with Goal 8 and not stressing over my blog. Even though I know real life comes first and that it’s occasionally going to get in the way of whatever I’m doing with my blog, I still have those freak out moments when I don’t get to post as often as I had planned or if it takes me a few extra days to visit all of the blogs I want to visit. My goal for this year is to really stay mindful of the fact that blogging is a hobby. If I have to step away from it to attend to real-life issues that come up, it will still be here when I come back. The blogging community isn’t going to forget I exist because I had to take a few days off.
10. EMBRACE MY INNER MOOD READER.
I had a few moments last year where reading felt like a bit of chore. I won’t call it a slump because I was still okay with the books I was reading, but even though I enjoyed them, sometimes I felt like I was forcing myself to read popular books even if I wasn’t really into them at the moment. This year I want to make a point to listen to my inner mood reader. If my inner mood reader has no interest in reading a popular book that has been super-hyped, but would rather I pick up my old copy of Pride and Prejudice and re-read that instead, then I’m going listen to the mood reader rather than force myself to read something I’m just not feeling at the moment.
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