House of Cuts by June Gillam
Hillary Broome, a reporter for a California paper, lands in the middle of a serial murder investigation. The murderer is targeting managers of big box stores and leaving their bodies in disturbing positions. Detective Ed Kiffin reluctantly teams up with Hillary to try to track down the killer.
This was a fun fast-paced murder mystery. I quickly became invested in the characters and even came to understand the killer’s motives (even as I don’t condone his actions). The point of view switches from Hillary to Ed to the killer throughout the story.
Hillary has some parental issues as her father recently died and her mother abandoned both of them when she was quite small. She recently left a bad relationship back east and she has some secret from that time period she doesn’t want her current colleagues to know about. Detective Ed is also an interesting character. He knows he should give up smoking but still can’t do it. His wife left him after their daughter died in an unsolved hit and run accident.
Initially, I wasn’t sure who the killer was even though we get to ride around in his head. As the story moves along it becomes apparent who it is to me as the reader, but I still quite enjoyed watching Hillary and Ed try to figure it out. It’s obvious with the first body that the killer has some experience butchering large animals. So the police suspect he is perhaps a hunter or a professional butcher. I really appreciated the few accurate butchering details the author included, which made the plot that much realer.
The suspense winds up as Hillary pieces the clues together and decides to follow her guesses. She has a need to make sure her new friend is OK and ends up confronting the killer. Honestly, I was biting my nails at this point since Ed and the police force seemed pretty behind on the chase. I was very pleased when Hillary had a hand in saving the day even as the police finally showed up. It was a fun, sometimes intense, story and I look forward to more Hillary Broome novels.
I received a copy of this audiobook from the author (via iRead Book Tours – thanks!) at no cost in exchange for an honest review.
Narration: Ginny Harman was a good pick for this book. She had clear, distinct voices for all the characters. Also, her male voices were good. There was even a little singing that was done well.