Not quite as good as the last one. As a sequel, it's just more overwrought, and if you strip away all the melodramatic detail, every basic beat of the plot was fairly predictable. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoyed it, but apparently there are six books in the series and I'm already fed up with everyone's complete and total inability to just put a bullet into the head of Gretchen Lowell. There are plenty of opportunities to actually stop this sadistic murderer in her tracks but no-one ever takes them. So Archie will die if you shoot her in the head? Let him die! One person - and a fairly dodgy one at that, though I suppose it's hardly surprising given he's so surrounded by crooks, surely it's rubbed off - is a bargain compared to the literal hundreds Lowell would slaughter if left alive. These people, I swear. I want to reach into the pages and give them all a good slap... with the sole exception of Archie's ex-wife Debbie, who seems to be the only sane person here. And she's got a healthy sense of self-preservation and self-respect, too... I hope she takes the kids and ditches Archie for good. He can wallow in his masochistic trauma all he likes then, and let's face it, he's actively enjoying it - and NOT knocking off the serial killer when he has the chance - so I can't say I care that much about him ruining his life even further.