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Release date: September 29, 2016

Publisher: Bookouture

Genre: Mystery/Thriller 

Goodreads blurb: 

A killer behind bars is still killing… 

When the body of a man is discovered with multiple stab wounds, Detective Jessica Daniel thinks it could be another drug-related murder. But then two more victims are found with similar markings. Each of the men were hardened criminals but is that the only link?   

  

As Jessica is drawn into her most difficult case yet, dead bodies continue to pile up and the media go to town with headlines of a ‘Vigilante’ on the streets. 

  

Then forensics match blood from the killer to a man already behind bars: Donald McKenna. Serving life in prison, Donald is a dangerous individual with the perfect alibi. But Jessica is sure he’s lying – and that he’s not the only one. 

  

Can she catch a ruthless killer before he takes his next victim? And as Jessica inches nearer to the truth, can she protect those closest to her? 

  

The second novel in the bestselling Detective Jessica Daniel series is a chilling serial killer thriller full of twists and turns. 

Review: 

This is the second book in a series and I rather liked the first one, if you missed it you can find my review of The Killer Inside here. While this one was an overall enjoyable read, I’m afraid there was a bit of a sophomore slump here and I can’t say I liked Vigilante as much as the first book.

The premise was promising, I was interested in the idea of a killer who was already locked up. How is that even possible?! It’s up to Jessica Daniel to unravel the mystery. I was happy to revisit her character as I was a fan of hers after being introduced to her in the first book. She’s the same old gutsy and ambitious girl who I loved and she has her work cut out for her again. This case is full of dead ends and improbable scenarios, but all physical evidence points to Dennis McKenna being the killer. But how can he possibly be guilty when he’s currently serving a life sentence behind bars?

I think my biggest problem here was that once things started to fall into place and Jess was able to fit puzzle pieces together the explanation was really far fetched. It wasn’t even a few moments where the reader has to suspend disbelief, (I actually have no problem doing that) it kept reminding me of outlandish soap opera storylines where things are explained by someone coming back from the dead or something similar. No, that’s not exactly what happened here, but it’s not too far off, but as usual I don’t want to give away major plot points.

The saving grace for me was Jess. I really like her as a lead character and I can’t help myself  from rooting for her even when she’s behaving badly. It’s her compassionate side that really wins me over, she truly cares about her victims families and they are the driving force behind her desire to bring killers to justice. Despite my disappointment with this one, I’m still looking forward to reading more of this series. It’s a massive hit in the UK so I’m confident that it only gets better.

Overall rating: 3/5

Thanks to Bookouture for my copy in exchange for an honest review.