High Body Count

Cyril Landry is a warrior. He fights for his country and believes that what he's doing is right. In reality he's a trained killer and he seems to have no emotion about committing murder. When the story opens, he and his team have just killed a house full of beautiful people. He's not sure why they're targets. When killing a young girl, he forms a bond with her. Now he wants to know why killing them was necessary.

Jolie Burke is a homicide detective. She's been assigned the case of the local sheriff who allegedly commits suicide after a failed attempt to get a good resolution to a hostage situation. But Jolie wonders whether it was suicide. As she follows the clues, the case quickly unravels.

These disparate characters, the cop and the killer, follow the same clues eventually making them partners. The trail leads them to the highest levels of government and for Jolie starts to unravel family secrets.

I found this book interesting and frustrating. The plot is very complex. Following the two main characters often leads to what feels like disjunctures in the narrative. For example, we learn that Jolie's niece is call her about something that's troubling her, and in the next chapter Jolie is acting on it. It makes you feel like you've lost part of the narrative, but on rereading, I found that it was just a jump.

I can't really recommend this book unless you like lots of hidden motives and, of course, killing. I found the body count exceptionally high even for a thriller. I liked Landry, but it was rather a stretch to watch him kill people so quickly and easily. If you really like cold-blooded killers, you'll love this one.

I reviewed this book as part of the Amazon Vine Program.