My rating: 5 of 5 stars
JEOPARDY SURFACE marks the debut of a compelling new crime series featuring a one-of-kind protagonist and cutting-edge investigative techniques that will have you turning pages late into the night.
It’s the witching hour and Special Agent Regan Ross is having a WTF kind of night. Morning? How the hell did she get from her bed to her front yard? And why is she holding a loaded firearm? Sleepwalking doesn’t bode well for the rising star in the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit, but whatever is causing her recent weight loss and bizarre nocturnal activities will have to wait. The phone is ringing. It’s probably her sister Erin, the surgeon who knows best, demanding to know her plans for the holidays. Why would this year be any different? They’ll spend the somber anniversary and Christmas like always—drinking too much, watching Turner Classic Movies, and not talking about their dead parents. Caller ID provides yet another surprise.
Hearing Special Agent Robert Haskins’ voice for the first time in six months has Regan reeling. The mention of Maryland’s Eastern Shore conjures images of Jennifer Abbott, the student-athlete whose disappearance from a small campus is national news. There are complications. For starters, her areas of expertise—geographic profiling and predictive analysis—require a lot of information from a series of crimes. Single murders typically aren’t her purview and involving herself in an investigation to which she has not been officially assigned will send the BAU chief’s blood pressure through the roof. She should say no, but she won’t. There’s too much residual guilt where Rob Haskins is concerned.
Regan Ross knows bad, and this one is BAD. The killer has left the mutilated body and a cache of troubling clues at a remote farm and posted the coordinates of the cache on a popular geocaching website. Is he taunting investigators? Expediting the discovery of his work? Both? The calculated modus operandi and uniquely sadistic signatures are not the work of a novice, and Regan is sure of one thing: he will kill again.
When visiting forensic psychologist Dr. Sheridan Rourke presents a lecture at Quantico featuring closed cases from Northern Ireland, Regan makes a shocking connection between an older series of murders and the Maryland case. Despite the Police Service of Northern Ireland’s insistence to the contrary, Regan and Rourke are convinced the killer of five women in Belfast two years ago is hunting women on the Chesapeake Bay. As the two become unlikely partners, Regan learns the psychologist’s past may be as haunted as her own.
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I found the storyline intriguing, Special Agent Regan Ross is called in to investigate a case. A dead woman has been found and even though she usually don't work one single murder cases is this one bad and the evidence left on the site hints that the killer is taunting the police and his doesn't feel like it's his firs time, and worse of all, he will probably do it again, and again until he is stopped. But, Regan Ross also has to deal with family trouble, an obnoxious journalist, her "relationship" with Special Agent Robert Haskins and her own health problems. Personally, I just loved everything, and I especially love the fact that this is the first book in a series.
Jeopardy Surface is a compelling thriller, with a fascinating case and complexed characters. I especially liked reading about Regan's past and her sisters and niece. Reagan is such an interesting character, strong and solid and I felt that I really liked her and that made this book so much more interesting. The case in itself is interesting, and I loved the end twist. But, I think the strength of the book lies in that Sheri Leigh Horn has created so many fascinating characters. I was pulled into their lives and it was with a bit of sadness that I read the last page and had to say goodbye to them for now!
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