THE KILLER INSTINCT by Kate Wiley

4* Another good read in this series, which works fine as a standalone, I think - I've read books 2 and 3, and there's enough history alluded to that a new reader wouldn't be lost.

So, the 3rd book in this series continues in the same vein as its predecessor, with Detective Margot Phalen at the beck and call of her serial killer father and the FBI, as the latter try and locate/record/cold case his killings. In between, she uses her instincts - as the bothered-by-her-conscience daughter of a serial killer, and as a kick butt cop - to track down the killer of a 70-something Chinese grandmother who's been brutally murdered in a home invasion. Beware, it's gruesome and graphic and sad, and the killer is shockingly depraved. I can't say more or I'd spoil this part of a very decent tale. 

Secrets are revealed to both Margot and her father, and we learn about his sociopathy from an early age and the start of his killing spree. If only teachers had been more attuned to kids' psyche and mental health in those days...! She seems more human than in the previous tale but I'm surprised once again that we don't see her in therapy though we see her looking at herself through comments her therapist has made. I think her work partner (maybe more in book 4?) is in part a defacto counsellor, too, knowing when she needs to be supported and when she needs to leave work behind. It's nice seeing her have a tiny bit of a private life, even if she's always alert to danger and protecting herself. I think I'm a tad surprised, too, that she doesn't have a work-mandated therapist because of the ongoing trauma of the prison visits.

Book 4 will no doubt continue similarly. I'm not sure how much more mileage there'll be in her encounters with her father and his word games. The guy's old and at the rate things are progressing, it'll be years before his 74 - so far - victims are known about, found and/or laid to rest. Hopefully there'll be a change of plans to allow her the upper hand once again, as as the book ends, her father's the one who's gotten what he'd been angling for. In any case, I'm up for it.

ARC courtesy of NetGalley aand Storm Publishing for my reading pleasure.

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