Title: The Executioner

Author: Chris Carter

Genre: Crime Thriller

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Rating: 4.5/5

Cover:

Summary:

Inside a Los Angeles church, on the altar steps, lies the blood-soaked body of a priest. Later, the forensic team discover that, on the victim’s chest, the figure 3 has been scrawled in blood.

At first, Detective Robert Hunter believes that this is a ritualistic killing. But as more bodies surface, he is forced to reassess. All the victims died in the way they feared the most. Their worst nightmares have literally come true. But how could the killer have known? And what links these apparently random victims?

Hunter finds himself on the trail of an elusive and sadistic killer, someone who apparently has the power to read his victims’ minds. Someone who can sense what scares his victims the most. Someone who will stop at nothing to achieve his twisted aim.

Review:

I thought things couldn’t get more brutal than in the first book of this series – The Crucifix Killer – but I was disabused of that notion pretty early on in The Executioner! This is just as fast, furious and thrilling/shocking as its predecessor and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. The premise is that there is a killer stalking LA who disposes of their victims according to the victims’ worst fear, which is one of the most terrifying things I can imagine. It means that this killer is able to entirely switch up their modus operandi at every turn which makes for an unpredictable and completely chilling narrative.

It was good to be back following Detective Robert Hunter and his partner Carlos Garcia again, especially knowing a bit more about both of them and their backstories. I don’t want to give much away about the plot because there are some fantastic twists and turns that really surprised me, which is always satisfying in a crime series, but I can say that The Executioner is a dark, pacy and explosively addictive read that I would highly recommend to fans of particularly unsettling and compelling police procedurals. 

★★★★.5 

Huge thanks to Tracy Fenton of Compulsive Readers for having me on this Blogathon. My review is entirely my own honest opinion.

Buy the book:

Waterstones | Amazon