A bank robbery turns into a blood trail as a pair of unhinged masterminds hack their way through a list of the most notorious US heists. The copycat crimes, emulating famous robberies, escalate as the FBI work with local law enforcement.

But the federal team has problems of its own. Sun Ming, Winter Black’s partner and nemesis, has her own agenda, while Winter can’t keep her mind off The Preacher, the notorious serial killer who murdered her parents and holds the key to finding her missing little brother.

To make matters worse, Winter must attempt to hide her ever growing abilities as the “gift” The Preacher gave her years before turns into a curse that threatens to destroy her, body and soul.

I read half of this on a work day and half on the bank holiday.

At the beginning I was a little put out because Winter wasn’t paired off with Noah. Instead she was put on a case with Sun Ming. Think of Sun as the bitchy, jealous, career obsessed woman we’ve all met at some point in our lives.

It wasn’t a pairing that I saw surviving to the end of the book and perhaps that is why it worked so well. Winter and Sun are complete opposites and driven by different goals.

The book starts with Winter taking more of a back seat role to allow Sun’s star to rise but we quickly see that despite not wanting to incur the wrath of Sun, Winter is also unable to put distance between herself and the case nor able to stop investigating in any capacity.

This book was interesting because it was much more a dual narrative with the FBI on one side and the perps on the other. It gave a unique perspective on the perps, how they worked together and informed the reader on a narrative that would have otherwise been lost. The two perps wouldn’t have had such an impact had I not been able to read about them and form my own connections.

There was a continuation in this book of Winter vs. Noah and Winter vs. Aiden. I think Noah won emotionally while Aiden won intellectually. I am still rooting for a Winter/Noah paring.

There are also other developments. We learned in Book 1 that The Preacher liked to keep in touch with Winter – which while incredibly creepy, makes for good storytelling – but here we see Winter open up more and include Aiden with what information she has and has learned about. I feel like this battle between Winter and The Preacher is closing in.

The reason this book didn’t get the full five starts is because the reveal of the perps motives didn’t sit well with me. It felt too lacklustre and almost disappointing and boring. For such an intelligent perp, it would have made more sense to have a more thorough reasoning.

I give this book: ⭐⭐⭐⭐