Karen Rose - Cold Blooded Liar

Sam Reeves is a kindhearted psychologist who treats court-ordered clients. After one of his patients—a pathological liar—starts revealing plausible new details from a long-unsolved serial murder case, he’s compelled to report anonymously to the SDPD tip line, though his attempts to respect patient confidentiality land him facedown and cuffed by the aggressive (and cute) Detective McKittrick.
San Diego homicide detective Kit McKittrick loves the water. She lives on a boat, and when she’s not solving crimes with the SDPD, she’s assisting her foster sister with her charter fishing business or playing with her poodle. But there’s nothing that intrigues Kit more than a cold case, so when an anonymous caller leads her on the path of a wanted killer, she’s determined to end the decade-long manhunt.
Sam is soon released but goes home with both a newfound distaste for the SDPD and a resolve—not unlike Kit’s—to uncover the truth. Kit and Sam repeatedly butt heads in their separate investigations but are forced to work together to find one of the deadliest serial killers the city has faced in years.

Comment: Since I'm a fan of this author, I will make an effort to read all her books and it has been so for several years now. Although many stories are set in specific cities, sometimes a few characters might cross over. That isn't the case here, with this book a new setting in San Diego begins and I will say I'm surprised at how the author developed this story, which is slightly different from her norm.

Kit McKittrick is a young homicide detective, with the reputation of doing all she can and beyond, to help the victims or their families. That is why psychologist Sam Reeves decides to anonymously call and give a tip so they could investigate something a patient told him and that he can't disclose freely. Sam isn't certain if the information has any truth to it since the patient is a pathological liar, but he feels he has to at least give a hint. The problem is that his good Samaritan act turns against him and he is considered a suspect in the case of the young girls found killed. Kit feels that Sam seems too much of a good person to have been involved in the case, but she needs to do things properly, even if that means he won't trust her again as he did before. But the real killer is out there and apparently not caring about setting Sam up to take the blame... 

What can Sam and Kit do to finally catch the real killer?

I was quite surprised with this story, to be honest. I've read all the full length stories the author has published so far (this is #27 in the sequential general series if one considers it to be a single one) and if I remember correctly, this is the first book where we don't have the POV of the villain! I already considered that to be part of the author's trademark so this was quite refreshing. I also liked this element because I did complain before about the villain's POV taking up too many pages (in my opinion) and how annoying that was sometimes, which means I really liked this new tactic.

Something else I liked is that in all previous books there is always a romantic element, whether because we see previous couples in their HEAs or because the protagonist couple is starting off their relationship. The romances then to be caring and sweet - often the characters have went though some kind of trauma or complicated situations - and it was mostly like seeing people who already got along getting together. The formula, if one wants to use that word, was easily recognizable, but this time Kit and Sam don't get along right away (although we are told they like what they see in the other).

This means, clearly, that the goal is to develop their relationship in future installments, and upon checking the blurb of the next story set in San Diego, they are the protagonists again. This certainly means we will have a slow burn type of relationship, for at least one more book, and I think this was actually fun. We are told  - maybe the showing part could have been better done - they match in temperament, in personality, in common values and goals... I'm quite eager to see the next chapter, so to say!

The plot of this book isn't too different from the author's usual, though. There is a criminal killing young girls who seem to have theater interests in common. As it often happens, the events are set up in a linear way, so that we can see what is happening and how, and how the detectives are able to connect the dots. Some events seem too convenient of course, so that things progress more quickly, but thinking about this in the big scheme of things, I think it was done well enough and, mostly, convincingly.

The killer's identity wasn't a complete shock because the pool of options wasn't very wide. Nevertheless, the psychology of it was interesting, as was the way the story developed because of that. I'd say the suspense factor wasn't as high as in other novels by the author, and this was both b«good and not so good to me. In one hand, I did like that things were easier to follow and that I could stay focused on what I wanted to know instead of dreading the POV of the bad guys. On the other, perhaps with the lack of an obvious romance and clues from the killer, things weren't as urgent, it felt.

This aside, I did like reading this book and it was always good to pick up the story and keep reading. Closer to the end, I was almost sure about who the killer had to be, but the hows are always more difficult to guess right. I've finished the book with a good feeling, I liked some of the secondary characters we've met and I'll definitely read the sequel at some point.

Grade: 8/10