Author: Alice Blanchard
Series: Natalie Lockhart
Genre: Mystery, Suspense, Psychological Thriller
Format: Kindle ARC
No. of Pages: 304
Date of Publication: December 1, 2020
Description: The day after Burning Lake’s notorious, debauched Halloween celebration, Detective Natalie Lockhart uncovers a heartbreaking scene―a young woman, dead and lying in a dumpster. There’s no clue to who she is, save for a mystifying tattoo on her arm, and a callus underneath her chin. She’s not from around here. No one knows who she is.
As Natalie retraces the young woman’s steps leading up to her death, she uncovers a deeper, darker horror―a string of murders and disappearances, seemingly unconnected, that may have ties to each other―and explain the abrupt disappearance of her best friend years ago.
As she digs deeper within the mind of the hunter, Natalie finds a darkness she could never have imagined. And as she draws closer to the truth, the killer is weaving a trap for her that may prove inescapable.
My Thoughts: It has been several months since Detective Natalie Lockhart has lost her sister, solved her childhood horror mystery, and caught and killed the Crow Killer in Burning Lake, New York. Natalie is still going through the seven stages of grief and has still not quite yet figured out how to cope with everything that has happened to her. The last thing that Natalie wants is to be given another high profile case when she is trying to still put her life back together again. However, on Halloween night, which is the busiest time of the year for Burning Lake, Natalie is called to a scene where she finds a young women who is dead inside a dumpster. At first Natalie does not want to take lead on the case but something resonates with her and she knows that she must try to help this poor young dead women. Little does Natalie know though is that this young dead woman is going to dredge up more of her past and possibly put her back into the limelight that she is trying so hard to avoid again.
To be honest, I wasn't sure that I wanted to pick this book up when I saw that it was available on Netgalley for request since I was quite disappointed by the first one. However, I am so glad that I did pick it up. The Wicked Hour is what I was expecting from the first and I absolutely loved this book.
Alice Blanchard pours so much emotion into Natalie Lockhart that you can feel her grief. You can also sense her desire to want to be with Luke, her childhood friend and her supervisor. I know that I definitely want them to get together.
There are a ton of interesting characters in this book and thankfully Alice Blanchard did not make this story as gruesome as the first one. She definitely goes into detail around the scenes where the body and body parts are found but they are bearable.
I was a little confused by the first chapter in the book as it felt so disconnected from the rest. Honestly, I feel like the story would have been just fine without the first chapter. The story is fast paced and has many twist and turns. Alice Blanchard is great at the cloaking who the murder is.
I am a huge fan of Halloween and love the history of Burning Lake and their witchcraft history. Alice Blanchard does a wonderful job at integrating Burning Lakes history throughout the story, especially since it is Halloween night when the murder takes place.
Similar to the first book, Natalie Lockhart finds that this case that has landed in her lap makes her reminiscence of her childhood best friend Bella who disappeared after they graduated from high school. Natalie starts to wonder more about Bella and what happened to her as it is a mystery that is not quite solved. She also starts to wonder if yet again if she really knows those that are close to her.
Rating: 5 out of 5. Best Natalie Lockhart book yet. I found it very hard to put it down. I am seriously hoping for a third book and I hope that it explores Bella's mystery.
About the Author: Alice Blanchard is the award-winning author of "Trace of Evil," "Darkness Peering," "A Breath After Drowning" and "The Breathtaker." She has received a PEN Award, a New Letters Literary Award, a Centrum Fellowship, and the Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction.
"Trace of Evil," the first of Alice's new Natalie Lockhart series, was chosen as an IndieNext Pick, a Loanstars Top Pick, and an Amazon Best Mysteries/Thrillers for December 2019. "Darkness Peering" was on the New York Times' Notable Books list, and her thriller, "The Breathtaker," was an official selection of NBC’s Today Show Book Club. Her work has been published in 17 countries.
"The Wicked Hour," the second novel in the Natalie Lockhart series, is available for pre-order now.
The Natalie Lockhart series follows a female rookie detective investigating a homicide that has eerie ties to the murder of a teenage girl 20 years ago. The series will unearth an even darker story involving a history of witch accusation and obsession with black magic deep in the woods of the idyllic suburban community of Burning Lake, New York.
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