The Reaping

After reading Bloodline by Jess Lourey (which I really didn’t like, gave it only one star), I was a bit hesitant to try her again. But wow, I’m so glad I did. The first book in this series was good, but this one? It’s even better.

What really got me hooked is the mystery wrapped in the history of this small, isolated town with Finnish immigrant roots, a place that once was alive but now it’s kind of fading away. You really feel the tension when Harry Steinbeck and Evangeline “Van” Reed arrive to check out a cold case. People there look at them suspiciously, and the silence is heavy. You know the town is hiding something, holding secrets close.

Everything is around this prison-like care home for dangerous criminals. From the show more start you feel something is off, like something is lurking under the surface.

The story is told from Harry’s perspective, which gives the story this extra edge and tension. I’ve liked Harry since the first book, his way, his behavior, and his sad past, that makes me like this book even more. Evangeline is a good character too, but there’s something about Harry that really grabs me.

The ending had an interesting twist I didn’t really expect, but it fits perfectly into the story and it makes me very eager to read the next book.

I feel like this book doesn’t quite reach all the way to five stars for me. But I’m very pleasantly surprised by how good this series is. I’m glad I gave the author a second chance after Bloodline. This series has definitely made me more interested in reading other books by her. I’m looking forward to the third book. show less

When BCA agents Harry Steinbeck and Van Reed are called to Northern Minnesota to look into a case that mirrors a cold case from twenty-five years earlier, Harry feats that he will have to reopen terrible events from the past.

A gruesome murder has taken place in the small, isolated town of Alku. It mirrors the deaths of a man, woman, and their three children which took place in Alku twenty-five years earlier. First the victims are shot with a shotgun and then their heads are crushed.

Alku is not a welcoming place. Settled by Finns who escaped Finland ahead of a mob who wanted them dead, the town is insular in the extreme. Their only source of income is the nursing home for felons that they run in a school/sanitorium that has had many show more purposes over the years. Since one of the inmates was convicted of similar crimes, he becomes Harry and Van's first suspect. However, his physical disabilities make it impossible to be the perpetrator.

As Van and Harry look into the cold case, they find that there were a series of other suspicious events that happened at the same time. Two hikers attacked by bears and the disappearance of a local resident all happened within days of the murder.

Now, children are disappearing and Van and Harry wonder if it connects somehow with those old murders.

This was an interesting mystery. I especially like that both of the main characters have issues from their pasts that need dealing with. Harry's guilt over the disappearance of his younger sister - also twenty-five years ago - has driven his life choices ever since that day. Now, he has to confront them and the mother he blames for his sister's disappearance.

I liked the setting which is my hometown - Duluth, Minnesota - even though the author takes some liberties with the geography. show less