Don't turn out the lights

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my opinion of the book or my review itself.

There's someone out there, stalking women, harassing them and destroying their lives until they feel they have no choice but to commit suicide. When a detective on sick leave receives a hotel room key to a room one of those women stayed in, he is drawn into a twisted game with deadly consequences.

There are a lot of great twists and turns in this mystery. There was one towards the end, a big reveal, that made me gasp out loud. Minier does an excellent job of laying down red herrings to keep readers guessing.

This is a complex layered mystery. Nothing and no one are what they seem at first show more glance. Minier creates an atmosphere that is almost suffocating, where readers feel the fear right along with the characters.

It was hard to find a likable character in this book. I highly suspect this was on purpose, as Minier seems to be playing with the idea that not only is no one who they seem, but no one is truly good or evil.

This book also tended to move a little slowly. I felt like there were parts and descriptions, and character musings, that could have been shortened or even cut out completely.

This book took me a while to read. Even though I was highly intrigued by the mystery, the lack of likable characters and the occasional bursts of long-winded paragraphs kept me from getting completely sucked in. But the mystery was quite good, and kept me interested, and once the story picked up, it had me gripped.

Just a note, that this is not the first in the series, and there are some continuing character storylines that I feel like I would have understood and been more involved in had I read the previous books. show less

This was the first Commandant Martin Servant novel that I have read but it won't be my last. I really enjoyed this story that had a lot of twists and turns and an ending I was not expecting. What would I have done if I had to go through a stalker. I loved the Martin Servaz character. I received a copy of this book from Minotaurbooks for a fair and honest opinion.

Desde que el psicópata Julian Hirtmann le envió el corazón de Marianne dentro de una caja de cartón, el comandante Martin Servaz ha permanecido internado en un centro para policías, luchando por sobreponerse a un golpe tan atroz. Sin embargo, un día, Servaz recibe por correo la llave electrónica de una habitación de hotel en la que un año antes una artista se quitó la vida de una forma sobrecogedora. Intrigado por los motivos que han llevado al misterioso remitente a contactar con él, Servaz contraviene las órdenes de guardar reposo y decide investigar por su cuenta.

Ook dit boek van Minier heb ik met veel plezier gelezen. Het is niet zo zeer een thriller, maar meer een psychologisch verhaal over stalken. Af en toe wel beklemmend, want wat doe je als je hele wereld om je heen in elkaar valt en er allerlei dingen gebeuren waar jij de schuld van krijgt maar waar je je helemaal niets van kunt herinneren. Martin Servaz heeft zo zijn bedenkingen en duikt in het verleden van mogelijk eerdere slachtoffers. Ik vond het af en toe wel erg ingewikkeld in elkaar zitten, maar uiteindelijk vallen alle stukjes op zijn plaats.

Desde que el psicópata Julian Hirtmann le envió el corazón de Marianne dentro de una caja de cartón, el comandante Martin Servaz ha permanecido internado en un centro para policías, luchando por sobreponerse a un golpe tan atroz. Necesita descanso y, sobre todo, recuperar las ganas de vivir. Sin embargo, un día Servaz recibe por correo la llave electrónica de una habitación de hotel en la que un año antes una artista se quitó la vida de una forma sobrecogedora. Intrigado por los motivos que han llevado al misterioso remitente a contactar con él, Servaz contraviene las órdenes de guardar reposo y decide investigar por su cuenta.