Well, crap. I've run out of Kate Daniels books!

I added a half a star just for this small paragraph:

The night was split by an ungodly scream.

Jesus God, Wes prayed, what is he doing to her?

He increased his speed, the screams echoing in his ears. When he reached the boat, he pulled himself up onto the narrow diving platform that ran across the back and lifted himself onto the deck.

Nina stood in the doorway to the cabin, wearing a short tight skirt and high heels, a gun in her right hand, and the microphone for the boat’s radio in the other. On the deck, Kyle Stillman sobbed and writhed, blood pouring from between his hands, which were held to his face.

“What took you so long?” she said without turning around.

Without waiting for a response, she pointed to the radio. “You know how to use one of these? I’m trying to call the Coast Guard . . . “

THAT is how I like my heroines.

This book is very, very English.

This bewildering line brought the entire story down for me; it made me rethink what I liked about the characters:

"She panicked?"
"Yes, inspired by half-digested sex-education lessons and a vivid imagination. And with all the stories that have been in the papers, the first thing that occurred to her was to shout rape."
"Not the first time that's happened."
Fry shrugged. "We all know there are more false rape allegations than there are actual rapes. The boyfriend's fifteen, by the way."

Whaaaa??

I'm going to be honest, I only finished this book because I wanted to see how the case was resolved. I felt like this novel was just a clumsy vehicle for the author to show off how much he knows about criminal psychology and profiling (which was his former profession, I believe).

I didn't care about the main character (Robert) and none of his emotional reactions felt real to me. He is one of those too good to be true protagonists, great at everything and faux humble to boot ("I read a lot"). Normally I can overlook that sort of trope if the dialogue and supporting characters are fun and entertaining, which was not so in this case. The conversations read like lectures half the time - especially when he was speaking to Garcia, his rookie partner. The author used his newness as another way to throw infodumps out in large pieces.

Honestly, I was more interested in D-King's underground kingdom than anything Robert was doing.