I guess I’m back to my old tricks of starting a series at book number three! I don’t know how I do it, but I have a knack for starting at three. Not two, not four, but three. There are many times through the history of my CBRs where I started a series at three. I usually go back and start from one after finishing the third book though!
Since this is book three, the duo of Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) agent Amy Larson and FBI agent Hunter Forrest is pretty well established. I think they’re on vacation when they get called into a missing hiker case in Denver. There are a bunch of people who have disappeared before these two, and while looking for them law enforcement finds a muddy pit filled with dead bodies that have been gnawed on. They find a small toy horse, which is the calling card of one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse (number three to be exact!). They realize this is connected to their previous two cases, and find a scary cult at work.
So I didn’t dislike this book, but I can’t imagine recommending it to people. It did make me want to read the rest of the series, so it has that going for it. There’s just something about how the author tries to mash a romance into the police procedural parts. I don’t have a problem with romance, or sex, or anything like that. I just didn’t think it meshed well with the story. And it was suuper unrealistic. Like they crawled around muddy caves all day filled with dead bodies potentially chewed on by people. Then they got back to the hotel and were all sexy for each other. I’d be like ‘DO NOT TOUCH ME” until I took about seventeen showers and naps. Maybe I’m the problem though? Haha.
And here we go, book one of the Amy Larson and Hunter Forrest books. This is where most people start a series of books. I like to keep things spicy and just dive in wherever! Anyway, book one gives us the background for both Amy and Hunter.
Amy is based in Florida as part of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. I guess it’s like maybe similar to the state police? I’m not entirely sure. Sorry to all the FDLE members out there if I’m insulting you! Amy is called to a remote road in Florida where a woman was killed in a really gross and ritualistic way. Hunter Forrest (we find out in one of these books that he actually CHOSE that as his name) is in the FBI and familiar with cults, which this looks like it might be.
They are of course partnered reluctantly (on Amy’s part) and learn to respect each other and work well together. They realize this killing is the just the start of a killing spree and a madman or madmen are behind it all. I’ve never believed the depiction of a small town with their doomsday preppers and cultists more than in this book! I think we get to the end of this book with Amy and Hunter figuring out who’s behind it all, but it’s more like Russian nesting dolls. There are definitely more people involved, and they only see the tip of the iceberg. There was less awkward sex in this book, because they just met, but there is awkward lust!
This is book two of the series that I started at three. If I haven’t mentioned it yet, this series is based on the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Book 3 was about Famine, book 1 was about Death, and book 2 is about War. I guess that means book 4 (whenever it comes out) is about Conquest.
The way Amy and Hunter are tying all of these murders together is with little toy horses. They find a small toy horse in the bloody aftermath of a gang killing in the Everglades. They quickly realize that the gang massacre is the beginning of a war.
I just read a review titled “how did this get published?” and I kinda agree. The dialog is so clunky and the relationships seem forced. I don’t hate the story line though. And like I said in the other two, it kept me reading, which is something at least. There are a lot of characters, and they don’t all seem to matter to the story, which is kinda annoying. As this is book two, there is more awkward sex that is uncomfortable to read and also poorly written.
To be honest, I don’t even remember what happened at the end, or who the bad guy was, or the difference between all of those things in these three books. That doesn’t say a lot for the series, or for me, since I’ll be reading book four whenever it comes out!
Rating for the series: 2.5 stars
