I really love this series featuring Detective Robert Hunter, by Chris Carter. I’ve missed a couple but think it is one I will ultimately go back to and read in order. Sometime in the future. On the whole however, these books can easily be read as standalone novels.

And this, the eleventh in the series, is most definitely one of my favourites so far.

Written in Blood
by Chris Carter
Series: Robert Hunter #11
Published by Simon & Schuster AU
on 05/08/2020
Source: NetGalley
Genres: Crime Fiction, Thriller / Suspense
ISBN: 9781471179587
Pages: 496

Goodreads

Angela Wood, a master in the art of pickpocket, has just finished for the day - six hundred and eighty-seven dollars – not bad for less than fifteen minutes work.

As she celebrates her profitable day with a cocktail, one of the patrons in the lounge she’s in catches her attention by being rude to an old man. Angela decides to teach him a lesson, and steals the man’s expensive-looking leather bag.

Inside is no money ... no laptop computer ... nothing of any value ... at least not to Angela. Just a black, leather-bound book, surprisingly heavy.

Curiosity takes over and in the comfort of her apartment, Angela quickly leafs through the pages. That is when the worst nightmare of her life begins.

In addition to putting us in the head of Hunter as well as our killer, Carter introduces Angela, a pickpocket who swipes something she comes to regret – a murder book of sorts, detailing over a dozen macabre deaths. Normally such methodical notes would give Hunter and his partner Garcia some insight into the killer and the chase would start, but it’s the psychopathic serial killer who goes on the offensive and keeps surprising the usually-insightful Hunter.

My usual pragmatic self was somewhat surprised the detectives didn’t race through the book trying to find and identify the sixteen or so victims, but guess that would have been a tad laborious for we readers.

Instead the cat and mouse game (with police relegated to the role of the latter) gives Carter a chance to seize upon Hunter’s psychological insight to realise there are many inconsistencies the killer’s documented motivations for the murders.

Things get a little macabre but it’s nothing we haven’t seen before in Carter’s novels and again he keeps this series fresh and relevant by delving into the dark web and the like.

My electronic version of this book was almost 500 pages, which is bloody long for someone with my attention span but I HAD  to keep reading until I’d finished. The pacing was great and it was gripping. I really like the partnership between Hunter and Garcia and the easy banter with their boss, Captain (Barbara) Blake. And I really liked Angie, the street-smart pickpocket which worried me as our killer is kinda merciless. I became way more invested in her fate than I wanted to be.

Written in Blood by Chris Carter is available elsewhere now but will be published in Australia by Simon & Schuster in early August 2020.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher for review purposes.