Once Gone by Blake Pierce (Riley Paige book 1)

 

Language: French

Format: Paperback

Pages: 204

Genre: Thriller, Mystery

Rating:  5 ⭐

Once Gone marks the debut of a serie of 17 books! This is a dark psychological thriller with a lot of suspense! 

For me I got a "Criminal Mind" vibe all over this book and in book 2 it keeps going! (I love Criminal Minds!)

Ok so let's talk about the plot first: 

Women are turning up dead in the rural outskirts of Virginia, killed in grotesque ways, and when the FBI is called in, they are stumped. A serial killer is out there, his frequency increasing, and they know there is only one agent good enough to crack this case: Special Agent Riley Paige.

Riley is recovering from her encounter with her last serial killer, and, fragile as she is, the FBI is reluctant to tap her brilliant mind. Yet Riley, needing to battle her own demons, comes on board, and her hunt leads her through the disturbing subculture of doll collectors, into the homes of broken families, and into the darkest canals of the killer’s mind. As Riley peels back the layers, she realizes she is up against a killer more twisted than she could have imagined. In a frantic race against time, she finds herself pushed to her limit, her job on the line, her own family in danger, and her fragile psyche collapsing.

Yet once Riley Paige takes on a case, she will not quit. It obsesses her, leading her to the darkest corners of her own mind, blurring the lines between hunter and hunted. After a series of unexpected twists, her instincts lead her to a shocking climax that even Riley could not have imagined.

Ok so now my review!

This book start really in a dark mood and scenario! 

I'm a huge fan of detective / thriller / mystery and murder books and this one hit the top!

I simply loved the way how the killer dispose the victims, how he prepare the scenario and make sure they are found. 

I found myself trying to find the killer and trying to find clues and i was totally absorbed by the plot and characters. 

This serie have 2 different scenarios regarding Riley: the professional side and the private. 

Riley have a double fight in her life: the struggle to come back to work and the fight to be a good mother and put her life together. And it's not easy since she is raising a teenager girl that look like her and an ex-husband that simply don't care....

So while I was very inside the homicide part I was also trying to figured out what was going on with Riley and her daughter and just found that Blake actually put a MC with a very real backstory and not looking as a perfect human without any bad situation.