Thursday, February 10, 2022

Book & Audio Review: The Body Counter by Anne Frasier

The Body Counter

Author:
Anne Frasier
Narrator: Emily Sutton-Smith
Series: Detective Jude Fontaine (Book 2)
Publication: Brilliance Audio (June 12, 2018); Thomas & Mercer (June 12, 2018)
Length: 8 hours and 31 minutes; 297 p.

Description: From a New York Times bestselling author comes the chilling follow-up to the Thriller Award winner The Body Reader.

Months after discovering the mastermind behind her own kidnapping, Detective Jude Fontaine is dealing with the past the only way she knows how: by returning to every dark corner of it. But it’s a new, escalating series of mass slayings that has become her latest obsession at Homicide.

At first, Jude and her partner, Detective Uriah Ashby, can see no pattern to the seemingly random methods, the crime scenes, or the victims—until they’re approached by a brilliantly compulsive math professor. He believes that the madman’s next move is not incalculable; in fact, it’s all part of a sequential and ingenious numerical riddle. His theory is adding up. The body count is rising.

But when the latest victim is found in Jude’s apartment, the puzzle comes with a personal twist that’s going to test the breaking point of her already-fragile state of mind. For all she knows, her number may be up.

My Thoughts: Detective Jude Fontaine is trying to get over her kidnapping and torture by throwing herself into her job as a homicide detective. Her current case, a series of gruesome murders where the victims have their throats cut and are posed afterward, is keeping her mind occupied.

But it doesn't stop the nightmares.

Her downstairs neighbor Elliot has a broom by his bed so that he can pound on his ceiling to wake her up. But he wants more from Jude. He says he's a student at the University of Minnesota majoring in photography, but he seems to have chosen Jude and her crime scenes as his only subject. He's keeping secrets are trying to get close to her. 

As the crimes escalate with the victims mirroring the Fibonacci series, Jude and her partner Uriah are working themselves to exhaustion. A health scare for Uriah makes Jude question what he means to her life and makes her wonder if she can have friends and relationships again. Thus far, her only real relationship is a sort of distant one with a feral cat she has named Roof Cat.

This story is told from a few points of view including Elliot's and Jude's and a mysterious young woman who calls herself Clementine. It is a high-tension story with a fast pace and intriguing characters. 

Favorite Quote:
"I don't forget. I don't try to forget, because when you forget, it comes back at inopportune times. When you're experiencing life. But if you never forget, it can't break you."
I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.

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