Tuesday, August 21, 2018

Face Off Review

Title:  Face Off 
Series:  The Evelyn Talbot Chronicles #3
Author:  Brenda Novak
Genre:  Mystery/Thriller
Publisher:  St. Martin's Press
Release Date:  Aug. 28, 2018
Purchase link:  Amazon

My Rating:  4 Chilling Hearts

*Many thanks to St. Martin's Press for an arc of this book.



Synopsis:
Tortured and left for dead at sixteen, Evelyn Talbot turned her personal nightmare into her life’s work—studying the disturbing psychopathy of some of the world’s most vicious serial killers. Now a leading psychiatrist at Hanover House in a small Alaskan town, she tries to believe the past will never come back to haunt her—until a woman goes missing from a cabin nearby, and every clue points to the man who once brutalized her…
As her boyfriend, who is the area’s only police, begins to investigate—and finds not one but two bodies—Evelyn can’t forget that her would-be killer, Jasper Moore, was never caught. But there are no new faces in tiny Hilltop, no one who seems suspicious or potentially violent. In this twisted game of cat and mouse, Evelyn is certain of only one thing—Jasper must be hiding in plain sight. And if she can’t find him before he comes for her, she won’t be lucky enough to survive twice…

Review:
As a fan of The Evelyn Talbot Chronicles, I've been on pins and needles since the cliffy ending of Hello Again and anxious to see where Novak would take the story and characters next.  I'll say now that if you haven't read the previous books, you should snatch them up and settle in for a chilling marathon of thriller action.  Novak does a fantastic job of catching readers up on backstory with each book so they can be read as standalones, but you're missing some great reading time if you skip the previous books.

Face Off picks up right where Hello Again ended, and I soon found myself transported right back into Hilltop, Alaska, and the tumultuous lives of Evelyn, leading psychiatrist at Hanover House, and her love interest, local law enforcement officer, Amarok.  Their relationship development is key in this book as ultimatums are issued forcing some major decisions and changes.  The author does a fantastic job exposing the differences that threaten their relationship and highlighting major hurdles they will need to overcome in order for them to move forward.  Novak wastes no time ramping up the chilling action with tension escalating from the opening chapters all the way through to the shocking ending.  I found the pacing to be brisk as I maneuvered the many twists and turns the author wove into this riveting plot line.  The interesting thing in this book is that even though readers are aware of the identity of the villain all the way through, I still found myself burning through pages while screaming, "Take off the blinders and SEE who's standing right in front of you!"  It certainly begs the question: Is there any better hiding place than in plain sight?  

I'm not going to discuss any plot details here as there's only one way to experience this thriller - read it for yourself!  I will say that dead bodies are surfacing once again, and Evelyn is sure that it's a warning for her from Jasper, the psychopath who's come close to killing her twice.  If there's one thing Evelyn knows to be true, it's that Jasper will never rest, never stop stalking her . . . until she's dead.  Question is:  Where is he hiding??

Face Off is an intense, edge-of-your-seat thriller that will have readers looking over their shoulder at things that go bump in the night.  While it can be said that the plot line is repetitive in some ways with Evelyn once again in a serial killer's sights, the story's chilling, threatening, atmospheric delivery makes it another Must Read in the series!  After the ending, I'm anxious to see where the story and these characters go next.  Another winner by Novak!

My Rating:  4 Chilling Hearts . . . And that's the truth!



Cross My Heart . . . xxx
Sandra


2 comments:

DirectLinda said...

This sounds exciting. Like your description of the romance. I'll have to pick up the beginning of the series.

Sandra Hoover said...

Definitely start at the beginning! I think you'll like this series.