A serial killer texts his victims first. A detective vows revenge. He comes after her.

In the chill of an October night, Detective Kerri Blasco is called to a bizarre murder scene. Leda Winfield, a young volunteer for the homeless, has been shot. Her cell phone displays the frightening text, WATCHING YOU, and into her back, hideously pushed with a hat pin, is a note with the same awful message. Leda’s socialite family and friends insist that no one would have wanted to harm her, but Detective Kerri isn’t convinced.

Until another random young woman is killed in exactly the same way. Kerri and her team profile a monstrous killer who enjoys terrifying his victims before stalking and killing them. But how does he get their phone numbers?

Kerri soon finds that the killer is after her, too, and that the key to finding him may just be in the homeless shelter. When the body count rises, she vows to stop the madman – even if it means battling her own personal trauma, risking her job, her love relationship with her boss Alex Brand, and her life.

J.A Schneider is back with the 3rd instalment in her Detective Kerri Blasco series. This time her case becomes a little too close for comfort!

New York Detective, Kerri Blasco is on the case of a young homeless mission worker, Leda Winfield, who has been found shot dead in an alleyway. This is no ordinary murder though, Leda was found with an old fashioned hat pin pushed into her back, securing a note stating, ‘Watching You’. The same message is also found on Leda’s phone.

Kerri has a few suspects in mind for the murder, including one of Leda’s ex boyfriends, and her brother. But then another young woman is killed, this time in a busy part of New York, during early evening. The same calling card had been left on the body, and on the victims phone too. It looks like Kerri has a serial killer to find.

The killer isn’t satisfied yet though, he has a bigger and more dangerous target in mind. He wants Kerri. Can she discover who the killer is, before she becomes another one of his victims?

This is the third book in the series, but the first one I have read. I didn’t feel that I had missed anything, nor found that the plot, or the characters hard to follow. This book works just as well as a standalone.

Detective Kerri Blasco, is hard working, and will go above and beyond the call of duty to catch her killer, even if that means putting herself in harms way. She isn’t perfect though, with her past haunting her, giving her nightmare. But with the comfort of her partner Alex, in both senses, she manages to get through each day.

The plot is exciting, and fast paced. You feel that you are immersed in Kerri’s world, trying to work out who the culprit is. There are plenty to chose from, and lots of curve balls thrown in for good measure. Unfortunately for me, which I put down to the amount of thrillers that I read, I had guessed pretty early who the killer really was. This didn’t affect my enjoyment, as I was eager to find out how Kerri would connect the dots.

Watching You, grabs your attention from the very first page, it is suspense-layered and at times will have you forgetting to breath. I love how Ms. Schneider has also given you a taste of what is going through the killer’s mind, with pages dedicated to him, (knowing the killer is male isn’t a spoiler, as you find that out right after Leda’s murder).

This book is almost impossible to put down. It psychologically taunts you, and holds you captive in its pages. It is perfectly executed, superbly written, and includes very realistic characters, in very realistic situations. This is pure enjoyment from beginning to end.

J.A. (Joyce Anne) Schneider is a former staffer at Newsweek. Words and story ideas are always teeming in her head – “a colorful place!” she says.

She’s a wife, mother, and loves thrillers and medical thrillers. Once a Liberal Arts major (French and Spanish Literature), she has become increasingly fascinated with medicine and forensic science. Decades of being married to a physician who loves explaining medical concepts and reliving his experiences means that there’ll be medical angles even in “regular” thrillers that she writes.

@JoyceSchneider1
Facebook
Pinterest
Goodreads