This was an interesting read. Jake Carrington is a detective on the case of a killer. For the last 4 years a murder has taken place on July 6th, and this murder victim, the fifth in as many years, is the first whose body has actually turned up. She, like all the others before her were engaged to be married. The killer than begins to send messages to Jake, the detective, claiming that Jake hates his (the killer's) brother just as much as he does. It's quite baffling at first but draws Jake in deeper and deeper in a quest to uncover his identity before he strikes again. While the premise of this murder mystery was quite good, I was quite lost at times and thought it lacked credulity. A little more planning might not have gone astray. I thought there were a lot of lose ends that seem to have just been forgotten about. A closer look during the editing process would have avoided some of these pitfalls.

An engrossing suspense thriller, ALL THE PRETTY BRIDES is the third installment in the Detective Jake Carrigan Series. Set in a city of 100,000 population in Connecticut, the series protagonist is a Homicide detective, now Lieutenant, with tragedy in his past--the murder of his sister at fifteen. Commitment-phobic, he is trying to reestablish a relationship with psychologist--author Mia, when a horribly tortured murder victim is discovered, capping a series of brides-to-be kidnapped on July 6, one each year for the past five years. Then the killer targets both Jake and Mia.


I was riveted. ALL THE PRETTY BRIDES is a marvelous, although gory, page-turner.

It was a great thriller that left me guessing till the end .I recommend it for those who love the show criminal minds

This is 3rd in this crime fiction series featuring Lt. Jake Carrington and Sgt. Louis Romanelli. It is easily read as a stand alone although I recommend starting at the beginning.

Carrington is going after the Bride Murderer. Every year on a particular date, a young woman is abducted. The body he is looking at now is the 5th woman to disappear .. only this time her body has been left where it will easily be found. The previous missing women have never been seen again.

As Carrington and his team start their investigation, the killer sends a personal message with a clue .... he says his brother is someone that Carrington hates as much as he does.

And while this is going on, Mia, Carrington's girlfriend, has a stalker. He or she has sent her dead animals. Are the cases connected? The same killer?

This is an action-packed police procedural that gripped me from the very first page. Carrington and his team spend a lot of time investigating a large number of people, friends, families, co-workers of the missing women. There are many suspects and it's impossible to guess the 'who', although you know the 'why' early on.

Many thanks to the author / Kensington Books - Lyrical Underground / Netgalley for the digital copy of this crime fiction. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

Twists and turns , suspense and so many surprises. What happens when the death you are called to is a murder that reminds you of what use to be? Jake lost his sister years ago and still has nightmares about what happened. What does he discover? what can he do to find this new evil ? This is the first time but not the last time I will be reading this author. Thank you for the chance to read this book.

Perfect psychological thriller! It moved at a fast pace with twists and turns throughout! I couldn’t put it down! Highly recommend! This was the perfect addition to the series!

Five young women, all vanished on July 6 in consecutive years. All pretty, fitting the same physical description, and all engaged to be married. Now, for the first time, one of them has been found, gruesomely tortured and killed. For homicide lieutenant Jake Carrington the case brings up ugly memories of his long-lost sister, but he has to set aside personal feelings and find justice for these murdered brides before the killer strikes again.

This is a police procedural with a lot of focus on the nitty-gritty of the investigation, kept interesting in that it’s told through the interpretive lens of Jake’s point of view. We also get a lot of Jake’s personal life with his psychiatrist girlfriend Mia, and that of Jake’s faithful partner Louie and his wife Sophia.

I was disappointed by the lack of female authority figures here. Captain, chief of police, commissioner and mayor were all male and Jake, when given free rein to select his task force from the entire police department, chose all-male detectives. Both Mia and Sophia, the only women with significant page time in the book, are portrayed as victims who have to be taken care of by their menfolk. The one female police officer who features at all, Stella, is basically there to be a babysitter to Mia because Jake’s ego couldn’t stand having a man watch over her.

Though the book starts out with Jake insisting they give the victims the dignity of their names, it ends disappointingly too, with four out of nine murder victims not even identified and the plot sidetracked to catch Mia’s stalker, which was obviously someone who’d appeared in a previous book since I lost track of what was going on at that point.

The most interesting character in the book was the killer, obsessed with the woman who left him at the altar and trying to replace her. I wanted to know more about how he tried to force his victims to fit her mold; he kept them for weeks at a minimum yet we only saw the grisly end. We didn’t get enough time in his PoV to really understand his psychology, even though it was obvious from early on which suspect was the killer.

Though this had its good parts, I found myself frustrated and wishing for a better ending and women with more agency and influence in the story. I wouldn’t read another in this series. Two stars.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book for review through NetGalley.

An engrossing read. This was the first book that I've read of the series but I plan to read the others as soon as possible. I enjoyed reading this book.

Will you find your bride? Over the last couple of years young women have gone missing and only now a body has been found. But why now? Lt Jake Carrington has been tasked with finding the young woman's killer but it isn't going to be that easy. Now that the mayor has gotten involved Jake knows that him & his partner Louie will need to get this right. The mayor is waiting for the moment to get Jake thrown from the force so can he investigate the murder without the mayor's mole giving all the information away. He has to bring in a new team people that he can trust to bring the killer in, he does have some suspects but other than them been awful sick men he can't pin it on them. They need to figure out why the killer is targeting a specific type as they are all similar and were all about to get married. Can they figure out how he picks the women? But he knows that this case isn't going to get any easier as he is getting pressure from up above and things aren't always going great at home. Jake loves Mia but he just needs space at times his job sees the sicker side of people and he is always fighting for the victim as his sister's death changed everything. Mia knows that Jake pushes himself to hard but all she can do is to give him space and be there for him. Louie is having his own problems at home and he is afraid that his wife's boss will take things too far. Jake has tried to talk to him about it but he doesn't want to open up. Hopefully he can talk before things go horribly wrong. The killer is playing with Jake now as he is angry that Jake didn't release his letter and he will do whatever he has to do end the chase. Can Jake & Louie figure it all out before even more women die?
A good read. Like Jake & Louie they make a good team even when they are having problems. They have a good relationship going. Not too sure about Mia I really didn't get the sense that they will last. I was lucky enough to receive a copy via Netgalley & the publishing house in exchange for my honest review.

He calls himself, "The Groom," but the press refers to the cases as the Bride Murders. The police know that every July 6, for the past 4 years, a young woman had disappeared. The 5th woman, however, is not missing -- the body of Nadia Carren is found on the railroad tracks She'd been tortured, branded and her throat was slit. Lt. Jake Carrington and his partner, Sgt Louie Romanelli, are in charge of the investigation for the Wilkesbury, CT, police. It seems that in the mind of the sick psycho who is apparently kidnapping and killing these women, he's substituting them for someone in particular -- the woman who jilted him at the altar. This case is going to stretch them to the breaking point as other professional and domestic issues arise. It's going to take an incredible team and strong leadership to see it through...NO SPOILERS.

OK I do like this series, but I truly wish that Jake and Louie would concentrate more on police work and less on their romantic liaisons. I really hate that so much of the pages are wasted on "love" and sex. The details of the investigation are quite good and exhibit just how difficult it is to track and find a killer of this ilk. There are many characters in the book and some have a larger role than others but it sometimes hard to keep everyone straight. Jake Carrington is the protagonist and I run hot and cold with my feelings about him. Obviously he's a good detective and an effective boss, but he's got some serious flaws as well. Louie is a hothead but is Jake's right hand man. They have a long, strong friendship as well as an effective working relationship. Their women mostly annoyed me. The case is complex and the web is pulled tighter very slowly to the ultimate conclusion. Since the narrative flips in point of view and includes the killer's voice, it's not a surprise who has done the deeds, more a procedural of the painstaking work required to narrow down a huge list to the suspect.

After the first one, I wasn't sure I'd enjoy this, but I did -- even though I skipped number 2. I surprised myself by putting the 4th on my TBR as I do like the author's methods of demonstrating the workings of a case squad and the politics of the job. In my opinion, the series would be even better with LESS of the romance and probably appeal to a wider audience.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Publishing Corporation for the e-book ARC to read and review.

Let me begin by saying that the only thing the three books in the series have in common is the main character, his colleagues, and to a certain extent Mia. Otherwise they can all be read and enjoyed as stand alone novels (seriously, having read the second book, but not the first, I expected there to be at least some mention of events that had happened in book two, but there was nothing).

As for the genre, I would definitely classify these more as police procedural novels and not so much a "thriller" novel. There is a lot of "chasing down leads", "getting nowhere" and "dealing with bureaucratic nonsense" that I feel while very realistic in terms of how the police really operate, do not always make for the best reading material. In this case, it was enjoyable, BUT there seemed to be a lot of distractions in the side stories (Louie's drama with his wife, Mia having a stalker) that I felt took away from the story instead of adding to it. In fact, the big reveal as to who Mia's stalker was felt very anti-climatic. I would have enjoyed them more had they added something to the overall story instead of just seeming like "filler". Perhaps it was the authors intent to use them to keep Jake and Louie distracted, but it was a bit over the top for me.

Finally, it rates being mentioned, but I liked Jake less and less during this story. During the course of his investigation he goes into tattoo parlors. And while even he agrees that tattoos, piercings, and other body modifications are not for him, he comes across as being a pretty judgmental jerk when it comes to those who do have them. A nitpick on my part for sure, but this was just one of several reasons that it made it hard (for me) to even care about this character. Coupled with his hot and cold relationship with Mia, and I was definitely left wanting more here.

However, the author does have a strong writing style and this story moves at a fairly steady pace so I am sure there will be a lot of fans. I may finish this series out (as of right now its being billed as a 4 book series). However I would read more from this author.

DISCLAIMER: I received a complimentary copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review. This has not affected my review in any way. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are 100% my own.

For five years a bride to be had gone missing on July sixth . This year she's found dead on the railroad tracks ! A chilling and disturbing plot you won't soon forget ! I highly recommend this must read ! Thanks to Netgalley and Kensington Books , Lyrical Underground for the digital copy in exchange for my honest review ! #Netgalley #KensingtonBooks #LyricalUnderground
#ThePrettyBrides

For fans of serial killer procedurals. I'd not read the earlier books in the series so Jake and Louie were new to me. Jake's determined to find the killer of the young women killed before their weddings. He's motivated in part by the anguish caused by the murder of his own sister. There are alternating chapters with the killer's voice, which allowed me to figure out the identity before Jake did. Not a bad thing, entirely, because then it allowed me to focus on the characters. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

Take a great plot and characters, throw in friendship, partnership, humor and good police work and you get another great read from Lanouette. I am totally hooked on the Jake Carrington series enjoying both the work partnership and friendship that is the Carrington story. The solid police work of Lieutenant Carrington and Sargent Romanelli intermingles with personal and family life making them real life characters you’d like to sit down with and get to know. The plot is gruesome with brides-to-be kidnapped, tortured and killed. Can they catch the murderer while protecting those around them? A must read and can’t wait for the next Carrington novel.

So this is the third in the series but my first read when LT Jake Carrington is called to the crime scene of a body down by the railway track, it seems this is the body of a woman who disappeared on 6th July as with the last previous 5 years, a women has gone missing on this date but although she is the fifth victim, she is the first body to be discovered. The papers have dubbed the case The Bride Murders. With pressure on from both the top brass and the mayor, can Jake and his partner, Louie follow the clues and uncover the truth. With the "groom" now sending personal messages taunting Carrington, can he put his own personal feelings to one side to investigate.

With a couple of side line investigations going on in the background, Jake and Louie are feeling the pressure and with so much redtape and bureaucracy to deal with, it gives a great insight into police procedures and the tedious task of interviewing etc.

I enjoyed this book and delighted to say I have been very lucky that I have found yet another series to add to my collection, I really love books of this genre and will be starting this series from the beginning. Brilliant for those that love mystery/detective series.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Kensington Books/Lyrical Underground for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

In Lt. Jake Harrington's latest case, the body of a missing woman is discovered after having been tortured and mutilated. The victim is the fifth in a series of women who had gone missing on the same date over the past few years; however, hers was the first body to be found. Jake leads the investigation into the Bride Murders case, forming a task force of trusted officers in his department. Shortly after starting their investigation, the Groom (as he calls himself) starts sending notes to Jake threatening to kidnap his next victim. While working long hours interviewing suspects and tracking down leads, Jake is also forced to deal with bureaucracy within the police force and the politics that come with it, his girlfriend's stalker, and his partners troubles at home.

This is the third installment in the Jake Harrington series, but the first that I have read. I would definitely recommend reading the first two installments before starting this one; there are several references to things that happen and characters from other books (I'm assuming) and I was a little lost at points.

This is definitely a police procedural novel - the first 3/4 of the book are just Jake and his partner, Louie, tracking down leads, interviewing suspects, and running background checks. There are 2 or 3 sections from the killer's point of view, but for the most part it's just the day to day grind of solving a case. Overall, the mystery was pretty good, but nothing totally mind blowing. The side stories with Louie's family and Mia's stalker are more distracting than anything else. This was just a three star read for me. I probably won't be reading the other books from the series - just not my preference in a mystery.

I requested this from not realizing it was the third book in a series. I normally don't start reading in the middle, but I gave it a shot. I didn't finish the book because I felt like the characters were unrealistic. I don't know any men that pry into each other's feelings as much as Jake and Louie, and I just couldn't really get into it. Not rating this anywhere else since I didn't finish.

Ms. Lanouette has written a fabulous mystery that will keep reader turning pages well after bedtime. Her characters realistically react to both the murder and politically motivated events around them. It's a good solid mystery that readers will enjoy. Thank you!

Ive not ready any of the other books by this author so at times struggled to warm to the characters, however this book is a great read and very hard to put down . Found myself saying ill just read one more page but then that became a chapter, highly recommended

3 and 1 / 2 stars

Lieutenant Jake Carrington and his partner Louie attend the scene of a crime. It is the report of a body found on the railroad tracks and she was murdered. She is just the most recent victim of what the press has termed The Bride Murders.

Jake is frustrated as this is the fifth woman to be killed. What they have in common is that they were all due to be married soon.

Jake has problems of his own. He still agonizes over the murder of his own sister. His partner is distracted by a home situation, so he is not very helpful on the case. Then the killer starts sending him notes saying odd things.

At the end of the book is a truly bizarre family scene. Wow, spare me…

This is a well written and plotted book. Jake can be a bit of a hard case. I’m not sure that I liked him all that much. I didn’t get to know his partner Louie very well. But I do know that Louie was ferocious in supporting and protecting Jake.

I want to thank NetGalley and Kensington Books/Lyrical Underground for forwarding to me a copy of this book to read and review.