Book Review – Every Pretty Thing by Chris Mooney

Title: Every Pretty Thing

Author: Chris Mooney

Publisher: Penguin

Publication Date: 9th February 2017

Format: ARC e-book

Note: This book was received from the publisher in return for an honest review

About the book:

She came to find her friend.

Instead she found a killer.

Serial killer expert Darby McCormick gets a call from FBI Agent Jackson Cooper, who has been contacted by a woman who’s been in hiding for twenty years.

She was one of the only survivors of a murderer who has been carving a dark path across America for decades. Cooper believes he may have tracked this psychopath to the wilds of Montana.

Now, he needs Darby’s help to bring him in. But when she arrives Cooper has vanished without a trace.

Something is very wrong – and as the trail goes cold, Darby is all alone in a strange town, stalked by an unseen predator who wants to add another victim to his collection…

What I Thought:

Every Pretty Thing is the seventh Darby McCormick novel by Chris Mooney, and the first I read. When I first requested the book I wasn’t aware it was the latest in the series but within a few pages I could tell. Now some series, especially crime fiction, you can pick up randomly part way through and you’d never know, the case is self contained and you don’t feel as though you’re missing anything. Every Pretty Thing is different – Don’t get me wrong, it’s enjoyable but right from the beginning I could tell there was some history between Darby and Coop, a backstory I’d missed and it left me a little lost.

While I did enjoy Every Pretty Thing I did find it a little slow in places. I know books often build up to their conclusion, the plot of Every Pretty Thing moved along, but it felt as though there were no really significant developments until the last quarter and then everything happened very quickly.

I did really like the character of Darby, she’s a fierce woman, who specialises in serial killers and knows how to take care of herself, though as I mentioned I’m missing a lot of backstoy – the book alludes to something that happened when she was a teenager, anyone familar with the series and know if this is covered in an early book?

Would I recommend it?

I would, it wasn’t my favourite book of the year so far but I did like Darby McCormick. I’ve borrowed another couple of Chris’s books from the library to give them a go. I think once I’ve read more of them I would probably appreciate this one more, maybe I’d up the rating on a second reading with more history behind it.

Other books in the Darby McCormick series – Via Goodreads