The Survivor

4.5 stars
I really enjoyed the complex case in this crime thriller. It kept me guessing for sure, and the villain is truly a bad dude. It added an extra element to have him be throwing out literary taunts, since Kariss was a writer.

I do always enjoy a story with a writer in it, and it was great to have Kariss again. She's developed a bit more sense after the dangers of book one, but she's still ready to be independent and try to take care of herself. Obviously, there are issues when you don't leave that sort of stuff to the professionals. It was great to see brave, saucy Tigo again in his role as FBI agent extraordinaire, too. Despite the romantic vibes between the two in book one, they aren't even speaking when this story opens; his issues have proven too strong. A large portion of the story arc in this one is of Tigo's search for faith—he knows plenty about God, but doesn't like to give up his own independence to actually grasp true faith. When scandal rocks a local church, Tigo's fragile searching is rocked and all too nearly abandoned.

What if the literary villain is too smart?

The only thing that really bothered me on this one was how someone downloaded an app onto Kariss's phone without her knowledge. 1) It's said to be an iPhone, so she would have had to put in her password, unlike some other smartphones that could have been featured; 2) Wouldn't she notice a stray app on her screen?