Thanks to Netgalley for providing the Advanced Reader Copy of this book via Netgalley in exchange of an honest review; all opinions expressed in this review are my own. 

What’s more difficult than creating a smashing first book of a series? Making the next one as much, if not, more engaging than the previous one.

The second book of the Beth Katz series opens with Katz already following a series of murders of young women, sometimes even children, in neighboring cities. She is pretty sure about who the killer is, but he cannot be stopped by the law as he had been prosecuted for the same crime once and had been exonerated from it.

However, Katz has plans in place to find and stop him. But just before she could execute it, a body of a young woman is found in an abandoned cabin with her eyes and mouth stitched open in a smile. 

Katz and her partner, Dax Styles, follow the clues to one of the strip clubs that operate around that area. When another woman working in another strip club goes missing and is found dead, Katz goes undercover to find the identity of the murderer before he adds to his list of victims. The urgency is only amplified when they discover that there may be more bodies in many more cabins.

Will Katz be able to save herself from this twisted killer? Who is murdering these women in such a horrific manner? Does she stop the other killer who is already in her sights? 

Hood has given Katz a great character arch. We can see her opening up more to the people around her in the small town and also to her partner Styles. She is learning to trust other people and is even willing to punish perpetrators within the law. The ideologies and principles of Styles are beginning to rub off on her and the readers can sense the subtle changes in her persona. 

The twisted cabin case satisfies the appetite of macabre lovers and the final fight scene serves as the perfect culmination for the chilling narrative. It’s still not clear if the author is aiming for a romance between Katz and Styles; I don’t really want that to happen. I would rather a great friendship based on mutual trust and respect between the two, something that will help Katz fight her demons bit by bit. 

I can’t wait to see where the story goes next and if it can continue to hold my attention.

This story gets 5 out 5 stars.