See How They Hide (Quinn & Costa, #6) by Allison Brennan Format: eARC
Source: supplied by publisher via Edelweiss
Formats available: hardcover, paperback, ebook, audiobook
Genres: mystery, suspense, thriller
Series: Quinn & Costa #6
Pages: 400
Published by Mira on January 7, 2025
Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Publisher's Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Bookshop.org, Better World Books
Goodreads
No matter how far you run, some pasts never let you go…
Two people were murdered—at the exact same time, in the same gruesome manner, bodies covered in the same red poppies…but on opposite sides of the country.
With Detective Kara Quinn investigating in Oregon and Special Agent Matt Costa in Virginia, the Mobile Response Team digs deep to uncover more about each victim. What is the link between the two, and why were they targeted?
Yet their search unearths more questions than answers—until they meet Riley Pierce, the only person still alive who might be able to help them find the killers.
Soon, it becomes clear this case is nothing like they’ve seen before as their investigation leads them to the hallowed grounds of Havenwood—an eerily beautiful place rooted in a terrifying past.
As more bodies turn up, all tied to the same community, Kara and Matt are desperate to piece the puzzle together before Havenwood’s leader sacrifices everything to keep her secrets buried.
My Review:
“No matter where you go, there you are,” at least according to Buckaroo Banzai. But seriously, as much fun as playing with that particular quote can be, it’s also profoundly and utterly true. The one person you can’t run and hide from is yourself.
Not that the string of victims in this serial murder case haven’t been seriously attempting to do so. For so long that most of them believed they had succeeded in escaping from the nightmare in all their collective pasts.
This cross-country case for LAPD Detective Kara Quinn, FBI Agent-in-Charge Matt Costa, and the entire FBI Mobile Response Team begin their part of this case with multiple murders in far-flung corners of the United States whose multiple perpetrators all left the same grisly calling card – a shower of red poppy petals over the bodies of their victims.
It’s obvious to all of the agents on the case that their victims MUST be linked. Somehow. But whatever those links might be, it’s clear from the outset that it’s not ANY of the usual possibilities. There MUST be a pattern but whatever that pattern might be it’s hidden in plain sight.
Which is the only link they have. That ALL of the victims have extremely good fake IDs made out of ‘real’ documents and that they all seem to have sprung, fully formed, into life and professions and even careers that require documentation, as adults. Where they sprang from, that’s the question.
One young woman, Riley Pierce, escaped herself less than four years prior, desperate and on the run, holds the key. They’re ALL, including her, escaping from a beautiful monster that is holding an entire town either enthralled, imprisoned or both.
A monster who wants revenge on every person who escaped her thrall. Especially her daughter, Riley.
Escape Rating B: This sixth entry in the Quinn & Costa series marks the beginning of a new story arc as the case that drove LAPD Detective Kara Quinn out of LA and straight into the arms of the FBI (in more ways than one!) was finally closed in last year’s The Missing Witness.
I got seriously caught up in the series’ combination of confounding cases, dogged investigation, dangerous adversaries and heavy personal baggage because the team that grew up around those cases and their mission was made up of a group of marvelous competent hot messes. Particularly Quinn and Costa and their very professional but also entirely unprofessional relationship.
While I still enjoyed the investigative aspects of this particular extremely daunting case, I didn’t enjoy the story as a whole nearly as much as I have the rest of the series. And I’ve been wracking my brain to figure out why.
As I said, I liked the investigative part. It’s what they were investigating that left me a bit cold, even as it reminded me of one of the books in J.D. Robb’s In Death series, Faithless in Death.
Both that book and this one are about cults, the psychology of those they attract, the way that they continue to mess with their followers’ heads even after said followers leave, the punishments inflicted on any variation from the founding principles, and the way that members become so ensnared they can’t leave.
However, unlike the cult in Faithless in Death, the cult in this story didn’t make the same kind of sense. Although I decried the motivations in Faithless, I understood them. The driving principles behind Havenwell seemed rather loosey-goosey, even as the way that the members behaved reminded me entirely too much of the way that people in Nazi Germany didn’t speak up for fear of reprisal – or something very close to it.
This is absolutely a situation where your reading mileage may vary, because this just didn’t grab me nearly as much as I expected it to and I only believe I’ve got half a handle on why that turned out to be the case.
Which leads me back to the reason I picked this up in the first place. I found the rest of the books in this series to be very compelling reads, so I’ll be back the next time that Quinn & Costa have another perplexing case to solve!
