Member Reviews
This is the fourth book in the series and I did not realize that when requesting it, that being said I had no problem reading it. This was an good interesting read and I liked Julias character.
Julia is a crime reporter who wants to solve the mystery of her brother but she's got to save herself first. There's a serial killer out there. I'd not read the earlier novels - making this a standalone for me. That wasn't as much of an issue as the trope-y plot. Thanks to Netgalley for the ArC.
*received for free from netgalley for honest review* this was a good read, mostly because i know many of the places named (like john king book store! so cool!), would read more from this series.
You Fit the Pattern is the fourth book in the Julia Gooden series. I have not read the first three books but it really didn't matter because Ms. Haseldine does a good job filling in the information enough for you to understand the characters and their story.
Julia is a reporter who has an inside track with the local police department. She is informed there is a body of a woman who was murdered and left in an abandoned church. Julie needs more details so she decides to sneak into the back of the church to get a look at the woman who was murdered. What she sees is disturbing because not only is she looking at a dead woman, but the woman is dressed in a dress that is almost exactly like the one Julia has and the wig is the same as her hair color.
When another body turns up the police realize they have a serial killer on their hands and maybe working with Julia, even though shes a crime reporter may be their best bet in catching this killer and stopping the murders happening in their small town.
I read this as a standalone and didn't love it.
On one hand it may be because I read it as a standalone and felt like I couldn't really connect with the characters since I hadn't been there with them from the beginning. It wasn't too bad until I hit the kinda/maybe love triangle (which usually is an automatic dnf for me. not a fan). There were so many red herrings that I was pretty suspicious of a lot of people until the killer was finally revealed and yes he was in my top three suspects. There also may be some set up for the next book. It was a red herring for this plot line but it felt too big to be brushed under the rug so I would expect it in the next book. However I do not plan to read any more in the series.
Another personal preference. I am not a fan of the slight paranormal aspect to the mystery. Where Julia is constantly dreaming of her brother and he leads her to clues to figure out the mystery. Obviously the dead brother plays a large part in Julia's life but this killer had no link to him. meh.
Has the crazy thought of being a murder victim of a ritualistic serial killer ever crossed your mind? Probably not. But this book will have you rethinking if the person you pass innocently on the street could be someone with those exact intentions.
Julia is just your typical city journalist/crime writer trying to find the next best story...and when I say typical, I don't mean typical.
If you add solving her brother's murder after 30 years of being cold to her resume, you might consider her somewhat of a rogue investigator. And after learning about women going missing and being brutally murdered who coincidentally are a spitting image of her, she jumps right back into the role of trying to find out who this twisted person is...and you'll never guess who it is.
I started this book a while ago, then got sidetracked by a few issues. Do I restarted it today and read it in its entirety. Wow! A good book — a REALLY good book, in my opinion — puts me in the environment as an observer. This book did just that.
This reminds me of the show You on Netflix. If you like it then you will like this book.
Thank you to the publisher and to Netgalley for allowing me to read this book in exchange for a honest review.
This was a great serial killer who done it involving voodoo and black magic! I loved the constant guessing on who it could of been up until the very end!
Jane Haseldine's You Fit the Pattern is the fourth book in the Julia Gooden series but can be read as a standalone. With the discovery of what happened to Julia's brother Ben happening in the last book, this one finds Julia involved in a very different investigation. There is a serial killer on the loose in Detroit and he is targeting size 2 women who run and are single mothers. The victims found were wearing a long brown wig and blue dress, looking eerily like journalist Julia Gooden. The murders are vicious, the victims unrelated, except that they are all joggers with the same build as Julia. There are also clues left behind that incorporate elements of voodoo and black magic. When Julia starts getting calls from the Magic Man Killer, things heat up. With a friend of Julia's missing and her body not yet found, the clock is ticking to find the killer.
I found this book even better than the first three in the series. It was fast paced and drew me in right from the opening chapter. I liked that there was more than one suspect and I was kept guessing until the last quarter of the book. I did figure out who the killer was before it was revealed, but the final showdown was still gripping. The characters in the story are well-developed and as Julia's boys get older, the Ms. Haseldine has given them more involvement in the plot. I like how the relationship with Julia and Ray is developing and that her children and housekeeper like him. I love her housekeeper Helen. She is quite outspoken and takes care of Julia, the boys and the house well. She played a nice part in this story. Overall a wonderful story that I really enjoyed..
Kensington Books and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of You Fit The Pattern. I was under no obligation to review this book and my opinion is freely given.
When one female runner turns up murdered in an abandoned church, and then another, a troubling pattern starts to emerge with direct ties to Julia Gooden. After convincing the police to allow her participation in their investigation, will Julia be placing her family in harm's way along with herself?
The only part of You Fit The Pattern that I did not like was the transparency of the story regarding the killer. The identity of this person was telegraphed too much, in my opinion, taking the mystery out of novel for me. As Julia attempts to put her brother's story to rest, her struggles in letting her emotions show in her writing were clearly felt. Julia's determination to solve crimes does have the tendency to make her go rogue, but I like how she always hands over the investigation and any evidence to the police. Even though Julia's past has been largely uncovered throughout the four novels, I feel that she still has more story to tell. With the personal connection to the police, Julia's crime reporting takes on a different spin and allows the author to embed her main character into interesting scenarios. I look forward to seeing where Julia Gooden is led into the future and I recommend the series overall.
Loved the intriguing mystery and the plot was brilliantly paced.
Wholesome characters made the thriller even more exciting and entertaining.
Author, Jane Haseldine, has added to her ‘Julia Gooden Mystery’ series with this book - “You Fit The Pattern”. I have not read the first three books in this series, ‘The Last Time She Saw Him’, ‘Duplicity’, and ‘Worth Killing For,’ so I didn’t really know what to expect here, however I needn’t have worried as I thought it was a fantastic read and I was so glad it had caught my attention!
I did not feel disadvantaged in any way not having read the other three books first as it was a perfectly fine read as a stand-alone story, though it would have been preferable to me if I had read them in their intended sequence.
“You Fit the Pattern” is a creepy, suspenseful and extremely chilling psychological thriller, set in Detroit.
For me, Julia Gooden as the protagonist worked well in this extremely well-paced thriller and the author Jane Haseldine has drawn a great character in this gutsy crime-writer. I really invested in this character and I wanted her to succeed. The other characters were also brilliantly drawn and were well portrayed as being very strong and real, if not without faults and added depth to the story. I particularly liked Detective Navarro.
Jane Haseldine’s writing style is really engaging and it was a good, fast-paced read with more than one false lead that threw me off the scent.
Full of so many twists and gripping tension, this was a thrilling and compulsive read from the offset and there was even an element of romance!
The conclusion was a very fulfilling ending to a wonderful book that regularly had me looking over my shoulder and was, all-in-all, a very worthwhile and well-balanced read.
Thanks to NetGalley, Kensington Books and the author, Jane Haseldine, for my free ARC of You Fit The Pattern. My honest review was completely voluntary.
#NetGalley #YouFitThePattern
Excellent as a standalone considering I have not read the first three books in this series! Definitely enough details provided by the author in this book to fill in for the previous books. I loved Julia, the lead character--she is super fun, smart, stubborn, a risk-taker and seems to be scared of nothing. She seems to be doing well balancing her family and her job, and now her love life. She is now investigating a serial killer case where female joggers are being abducted and left in dead empty churches wearing a dress that is identical to one Julia herself wore to a police function with her current boyfriend. SUPER creepy. But definitely a great story too! I had no idea who the killer was or what was going to happen until the very end!!! Looking forward to reading the first three books in this series! Thanks for the ARC!!!!
I did like this book. It was interesting and had a nice plot development. The reason I only gave it 3 stars is the book needed a lot of editing. Too many unimportant details that added nothing.at least 1/3 of this book was unnecessary. I would like to thank NetGalley for allowing me to read and review .
You Fit the Pattern is book four in the Julia Gooden series. That being said I did not feel like a had to have read the previous three books in order to read and understand this one. There were moments where I wish I knew more because some things weren't explained but they were not crucial enough that I couldn't get what had happened in the past and how it effected the now.
This novel was a pretty good crime novel. Julia is a crime beat reporter in Detroit and there is a new killer that is dressing his victims up like her. The story progressed well and didn't really drag. The character interactions were well done and it was nice that there were a few moments from the killer's POV. Haseldine keeps you guessing until the end but I was not surprised and felt very strongly when we met that character that he was the one.
Now I cannot recommend the entire series yet as I have not read any of the others but this one was good enough that I would go back and read the previous novels.
Crime reporter Julia Gooden is being contacted by a serial killer who is giving her clues about his next victim. This serial killer is abducting women out running in the early morning. The police have found the bodies brutally murdered in abandoned churches dressed in a blue dress wearing a dark wig. Julia realizes that the victims are similar to her. Detective Raymond Navarro joins Julia in trying to solve the murder cases and prevent future murders. This story is a complex crime thriller. I loved the plot and the characters. I will be reading more Julia Gooden Mysteries for sure!
While thus is the 4th book in a series I was able to pick this one up and read it without getting confused at all.
However, everything felt overly predictable to the point it was no longer entertaining and I was just having to wait until the author got to the point, After looking at some other reviews I am apparently the only one that feels this way and see that most people have enjoyed this book. I think a person that is newer to the thriller genre would enjoy this book but if you are a seasoned thriller reader it may be a little too cookie cutter for you.
Thank to netgalley and the author/publisher for the Arc for my honest review.
Enjoyable read. My one and only complaint is that I find the whole premise of women nabbed while
Jogging overplayed. Silly, but it’s my truth.
Crime writer Julia Gooden has just completed the most important story of her life—a book about her beloved brother’s childhood abduction and how she found his killer after thirty years. But that hasn’t taken her focus off her day job—especially with what looks to be a serial killer terrorizing the city. Female runners are being snatched off jogging trails, then slaughtered in abandoned churches.
Thank you to net galley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this book it was a great experience