Title: Her Darkest Secret
Author: Jessica R. Patch
Publication: June 28, 2022
Publisher: Love Inspired Trade
Genre: Mystery Suspense, Christian Suspense
Pages: 349
SYNOPSIS: (From Goodreads)
The sight of a goose feather at a murder scene modeled after a children’s poem is enough to make FBI special agent Fiona Kelly’s blood turn to ice. Almost two decades ago, a feather was left with her sister’s body—and with every subsequent victim of the Nursery Rhyme Killer. Now he’s back. Only this time, his latest gruesome murder is a message to the only one who ever got away: Fiona.
Finding “Rhyme” is an obsession that’s fueled Fiona’s career—and destroyed her marriage to fellow FBI agent Asa Kodiak. Now Fiona and Asa have to put their past tensions aside and work together one last time. But Rhyme is watching, and catching this killer may force Fiona to reveal her biggest, darkest secret…the one only he knows.
REVIEW:
**A copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.**
It was the cover of this book that caught my attention and the description was definitely one. I want to start by saying I did not know this was a christian mystery book, not that it would have dissuaded me from reading it. I just didn’t realize until I was reading the book and there were references to church and religion and praying, etc. It was actually quite the interesting twist on what I usually get from suspense novels. A little light in the darkness shall I say.
With that said I quite enjoyed this book. It had the procedural side with a really great group of detectives that I enjoyed thoroughly. There were a lot of different personalities. I love Violet even though she’s very standoffish and comes across rude a lot. I like Fiona and Asa, although I still haven’t quite figured out how to say his name right. Ah-sa or A-sah. Ty had me laughing regularly. There were a lot of unique and interesting characters to get to know. I also thought the serial killer had a unique spin that I hadn’t read before. I was kept guessing the entire time. I don’t want to say too much and give it away.
The only part I questioned was how often they had to go back to previous crimes and found some major clue that they had missed. Not a little clue. Something that I feel, based on all the documentaries and such I watch, would have been really hard to miss with the profile they had and the crimes. It just came across as very strange to me that this amazing team of detectives would have missed such huge pieces of evidence in multiple cases. A little unrealistic, but not enough to make me dislike the book at all.
Her Darkest Secret was filled with twists and surprises, keeping you on the edge of your seat, but kept it mostly clean which was a bit refreshing. A definite must read. I will most definitely be looking up more books from Jessica R. Patch.
