Prepare yourself for another thrilling Robert Hunter story from Chris Carter’s workshop of serial killers and darkest sides of human nature.
First sequel of the series will continue with one of the most brutal and intelligent serial killer the Chris Carter universe has met with. Where the villainâs point of view is preferred in comparison to the main characters.
It is not usual for the author to continue the story with one of his serial killers, but we are shown another unusual fact in criminal psychology and that is the changes of modus operandi. This is not common with serial killers in real world, they stick most of the time to the same pattern, but there are no set limits in fictional books. And maybe we learn something new from killer’s psychology. The first plus point receives the author with specification of some movie clichĂŠs, like that a person instantly dies after their neck is broken. In this book we are educated with the fact that the person dies seconds later, but with the break of the central nervous system his body is heavily damaged. Not to mention, that one must be impressively strong to pull off this stunt. Another plus point is for mentioning the seven rings of Purgatorio from Dante. Someone has not enough of Dante’s wisdom. One appreciates author’s experienced eye, because you can see, that he has knowledge and is educated in this topic. No wonder, we read about so many facts, since he studied criminal psychology. Now to the character of Lucien. We are honoured to see more into the brain of the villain, not just the killing as in previous books, but also how he gets his plan done, we jump right into his thoughts. On the other hand, we received too much from his point of view. I even have the feeling that Robert was suppressed by him. Lucien was in my opinion a too perfect criminal, highly intelligent, no mistakes, or almost no mistakes, always a plan in the sleeve and almost not catchable. This was too over the roof for me.
Some of the characters were getting on my nerves, like Captain Barbara Blake. For example, during the call in the office with Lucien she had to react and reveal that other people besides Hunter were listening. Honestly, I would expect more from someone with special training and her position as captain. To work under stressful circumstances is basically her job. Another character which came on my List of annoying people was West, to a point I thought he was either an accomplice of Lucien or that he would die. None of that happened, but he stays shady for me.
Now, to our brilliant main character who likes to read. This guy really deserves more happiness in his life, but as it seems, he will not get it. The only constat pillar in his life is his partner Garcia. All his love interests are either dead, a serial killer who tried to kill him or she is not talking to him, because her parents were tortured and killed by another serial killer. Yep, a small chance to get a second date. As I mentioned in this book the main character’s point of view was suppressed, and I was not that big fan of that. I like and prefer short flashes from the villains point, but I am reading a detective story (some good detective work was just the riddle in the beginning), and I want the detective to solve the case step by step and catch the killer. Lucien brought Robert to the crime scene, explained the whole story and pulled a runaway stunt, all by himself. Robert was more a side character, which I suppose was because Lucien received quite the hype from the publicum in his first book. This book on the other hand was lacking Robert’s personality and his famous sentence: âI like to readâ. Robert did not even try, because Lucien was that perfect and intelligent, that it was not possible to find him without his own intention. That gave me the impression of Robert, that he will not engage or do his job, because it had no point.
I liked that we could read a sequel from the Robert Hunter series, since most of the author’s books from the series are standalones. I can understand why he decided to proceed with Lucien and this storyline, since the sixth book, An evil mind, was the second best and most devastating from the whole series. Sadly, so far not one can beat The Crucifix Killer. In the end the book was enjoyable, it was easy to read and to follow the plot, almost bit captivating, and yet it was missing the final drop of charm. The end was a good way how to continue with the characters in next books. Last remark, this book was like Harry Potter. The villain was creating the whole plot, and in the end, the main character is saved by others. Still, I will read and probably enjoy his next book.