Killman Creek by Rachel Caine

This was a very patchy book, with sections leaving you almost breathless as you raced to find out what happened next and others leaving you shaking your head and tutting with impatience at how farfetched some of the scenarios were.

Picking up where Stillhouse Lake leaves off, Melvin Royal is still at large having escaped prison; Gwen/Gina is still running; Absalom is still pulling the strings.  This time she has help from Sam Cade and support from the local gun range owner and his policewoman girlfriend - even better Sam has friends in high places and maybe, just maybe he can call in a few favours.

My biggest problem with this was second book was that you could actually see the plot wheels turning on the page - there was little to no suspense built up for the majority of the read.  This was largely due to everything being flagged up a few pages before it happened, there were a few exceptions (the cabin in the woods, the side story of the attempted abduction) but everything else felt the story arc wheel had been spun so we had to move on to the next cliche.

The saving grace is the characterisation, especially Gwen/Gina's emotional state.  Personal reactions to situations are fairly realistic (for unrealistic situations) and give you a good insight in to each character.  This is particularly true with the children and how they are coping with the various revelations of what their father did and how their mother was (seemingly?) involved.  It is these moments that elevated the book from 1.5 Star to 3 Star, certainly not the almost Bourne-like tales of cross and double cross and dark web ne'er do wells.

That said I would struggle, in all good conscience, to recommend this book to another reader.  A shame as I thoroughly enjoyed the first in the series and I am now unlikely to bother with the next installment when it is published.