Action packed! This is the second installment in the Nina Guerrera series. I have not read the first book, The Cipher, yet, but I plan to read it soon. The author offers enough background to catch the reader up, but I do think it would have been a richer experience had I read the first book before reading A Different Dawn.

In this story, FBI agent Nina Guerrera and her team are called out to investigate a triple murder of a family in Phoenix, AZ. Nina has to figure out if this crime is connected to another triple homicide that occurred 2,000 miles away and 4 years prior. Also, these murders take on a fearsome and familiar tone when Nina discovers that each crime scene reminds her of a ghostly folktale that terrifies her as a child. Is the killer taunting her? Is it someone she knows?

I really enjoyed this book and in the Afterward I learned that the author, Isabella Maldonado, actually was an FBI graduate, ranked Captain for a police department in the Washington DC area, and retired as a Commander of Special Investigations and Forensics. All that to reveal that this story is not only cleverly written and smartly plotted but all of the investigations are accurately portrayed. I’ll definitely be reading more by this author in the future!

Thank you Netgalley, Thomas & Mercer, and the author for this eARC in exchange for my honest review. This book is available now!

A Different Dawn is the second book in the Nina Guerrera series.and it was absolutely fantastic this story takes us back to Nina’s haunted beginnings as she chases a demented serial killer that has terrorized families unhindered fir three decades. Can Nina embrace her past and find her way to the other side before more families die. Hands down totally recommend this book it’s gripping haunting and fast paced. I would give it a ten if possible!

A Different Dawn is the second book in the series with Nina Guerrera as the main character. I haven't read the first book but this has not impaired my understanding of the story. This book has an intriguing plot that connects with Nina's past, many leads reach dead ends but she keeps on searching to find the culprit. Great police procedural with many twists and turns which provides excellent entertainment!
I downloaded a free copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

Enjoyable, pacy thriller that kept me turning the pages. Makes a welcome change to focus on a female FBI agent.

I absolutely loved the first book in the series but this one fell flat for me. The characters felt contrived rather than real like they did in the original. There are simply too many great books out there to read any more by this author.

"A Different Dawn" was definitely a step up from the first book in the Nina Guerrera series (which I did enjoy), with this installment once again turning out to be an overall enjoyable book. Here's to hoping this upward trend continues in the next one!

After reading this second book in the Nina Guerrera series I can say for certain that this series will soon go on to become one of my favourites. I think the plotting of the books so far is just brilliant: every new case Nina and her team are assigned to solve brings her face to face with an aspect of her past and identity. I have enjoyed reading both the books and look forward to reading how the story moves forward in future installments.

I received an e-Arc of the book by the publisher Thomas and Mercer and the author Isabella Maldonado via NetGalley.

This is the second installment in the new Nina Guerrera series and is even better than the first, the Cipher, that I already awarded five stars. Perhaps we are getting to know her better and enjoy her investigations more. After a hard upbringing in foster homes, Nina is used to being on her own and while she is starting to trust the new team evolved from the last book, Nina is still an outsider in her mind. These novels are complex in their plotting, the FBI investigations, the terminology, the methodology is all fascinating but not nearly as fascinating as Nina herself who is quickly becoming one of my favorites.

An incredible book featuring a fast paced and thrilling plot with characters you connect to despite the extreme circumstances they find themselves in. Nina is quickly becoming one of my favourite protagonists and i am fully engaged in her story from page one.

A Different Dawn was the perfect crime thriller! This was my first time reading Isabella Maldonado and she really nailed it! The character, Nina Guerrera, a tough as nails FBI agent took her job seriously and she took no prisoners! Her background as a street kid proved to be an asset to the FBI, but it also proved to be a hindrance because she's used to working alone thereby putting the agents in peril. She's not a team player!

A very energetic storyline sure had my attention. I honestly look forward to reading more from Isabella Maldonado. She's got the goods and she delivers!

FBI Special Agent Nina Guerrera is back in the second installment of this series trying to catch a serial killer her team soon realizes has been active for over 30 years. Nina is bothered by the circumstances of the killings, as they bring memories from her orphaned childhood and stories she heard from the other children. When the case takes a shocking twist, can Nina solve it before she loses everything?

I love this series! A Different Dawn was even better than The Cipher and I’m excited to read more. Full of action, thrills and stunning twists, it was so unpredictable and enjoyable I couldn’t put it down. One of, if not the best of its genre I’ve read this year.

3.5 Stars rounded up to 4.
Nina Guerrera works on a special team for the FBI’s behavioral analysis unit. When she and her team are called to Phoenix to help with a serial killer who’s been killing for over 20 years, every 4 years on leap day, and he messed up on his latest kill. The case quickly becomes personal for Nina and solving this case could mean life or death for her.
I really enjoyed the storyline of this book. I loved that Nina was a young, Latina member of the FBI with her own dark past. The serial killer aspect kept me engaged and I liked that we got a few chapters from his point of view. That being said I did find it predictable and a little cliche at times. However, that didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the novel and the characters.
I’m looking forward to checking out the other books in the series and rooting for her Kent to make a move!

I loved the detail in this clever, complex mystery. Insights into technicalities of investigations makes the processes and the descriptions of crime scenes so fascinating. Well written, fast paced and just challenging enough - highly recommended.

I read the first Nina Guerrera book, The Cipher by Isabella Maldonado and immediately jumped into A Different Dawn when I finished it. They are two very different stories about the protagonist and her lifelong traumas. In The Cipher, I'll be honest -- it's an entire book of sexual violence against women plus physical and emotional abuse of Nina's childhood in foster homes. A Different Dawn is not about the physical aspects of personal safety and agency that she lost. It's all about Nina never knowing her biological family, her real birth date, or even the name her parents gave her.

The serial killer in A Different Dawn has his own motivations for hating his family - as dark and truly twisted as you would expect from a crime thriller. He spent 28 years attacking innocent families who met a certain standard and makeup for his needs, but only on Leap Days. To track down a serial killer who criss-crosses the country and had only been coming to light every four years, Nina's boss at the FBI keeps the team from The Cipher together as a pilot program showing how an expert in cybercrime, two psychological profilers, and maverick Nina can work together efficiently and forge unique bonds which have time to grow through the chapters.

Nina is always the unknown. Despite everyone in the world learning about the most traumatic parts of her past in The Cipher, she's still a lone wolf at the beginning of A Different Dawn. Her arc is tear-jerking without a doubt. My personal recommendation is to read the books out of order if you want to jump right into having an emotional tether to Nina. In book one, she's so closed off and distant to everyone which is an integral part of her journey. However if graphic sexual violence is not something you want to read, skip The Cipher.

This book's monumental twist comes from how Nina is actually linked to this new case of theirs on the Leap Day murders. She and her team couldn't possibly imagine there was a connection until one specific detail about the first victims comes to out. Once Nina's team learns of the connection, they have to decided who else can know and when making interactions between Nina and people she likes strained and tense.

Stakes get raised a couple of times as the brilliant yet evil unsub (unknown subject / suspect) has to evolve his patterns making adjustments for new technology and for this team on his tail. The suspect also put a tenacious and unethical reporter to use creating another antagonist or maybe what readers would think of as a henchman/ minion. Snead the television journalist is surely someone agents (and fiction readers) would want to punch in the face.

Author Maldonado puts a lot of her experience as a graduate from the FBI National Academy and her position as a local police captain in Fairfax County, Virginia into her hero Nina Guerrera. Something Maldonado had to learn as a writer (I saw a webinar with her) was explain law enforcement jargon. She does it well including with the profilers, sometimes referred to as mindhunters. She makes it clear that there is so much paperwork and approvals needed before the team can bust into a building like on TV shows Criminal Minds or White Collar. She admits that she does need to fudge those timelines for the purpose of the narrative in books which is understandable. These aren't How To books. Maldonado seems to have some assumptions about the availability of vital statistics records which are technically public but they are not as easy to find as going to a state's website and searching everyone's private information. This is combatted with the ease of how much people share online which is something Agent Breck from cybercrimes lays out.

Summary:

I enjoyed A Different Dawn because of the emotional binds about family much more than The Cipher, but both are fantastically well-written with a leading character and sidekicks that grow on you.

FBI Special Agent Nina Guerrera is back. Since the events of The Cipher, Nina has become a member of an elite FBI team, part of the Behavioral Analysis Unit, based at FBI headquarters. The team is helmed by Supervisory Special Agent Gerard Buxton. The other members are Special Agent Dr. Jeffrey Wade, Nina’s mentor, and Special Agents Kelly Breck and Jake Kent. Breck is a cyber-crime expert, “never without her laptop, which seemed like an appendage,” and Kent is a former Navy SEAL, an expert on team building and the psychology of predators. What a contrast to the Nina we met earlier: “The crux of The Cipher is the tension between Nina Esperanza the former victim and FBI Special Agent Nina Guerrera.” Then Nina saw herself as the quintessential independent operator, hesitant to rely on anyone but herself. She refused to see herself as a victim: she had worked too hard to remake her life.

At seventeen, during her emancipation hearing, she petitioned to change her last name from “Esperanza”, which means ‘hope’, to Guerrera. The judge presiding at the hearing asks her why.



“In Spanish, guerrero means ‘warrior’ or ‘fighter,’ and guerrera—with an a on the end—refers to a female.”



The judge took a moment to digest her words before his eyes reflected comprehension. “Warrior girl.”

That was then. Now Nina works on troubling, complex crimes, often coming under the ViCAP umbrella (Violent Crime Apprehension Program which assists with communication and coordination between law enforcement agencies). Nina observes at the start of the regular morning briefing that Supervisory Special Agent Buxton is tense and stiff, uncharacteristic for the usually phlegmatic leader.

Two manila folders rested in front of him. He tapped them with his long fingers. “If this is a pattern, it’s right up there with the most disturbing ones I’ve seen.”



They all exchanged glances. Nina waited to hear the briefing.



“ViCAP found a potential match between two triple murders committed in different cities precisely four years apart,” Buxton continued. “We’ve been tasked with determining whether they’re related and, if so, assisting with the investigation at the request of the Phoenix, Arizona, police department.”

A mother, father, and their newborn daughter were killed in their home in the middle of the night. When Nina looks at the crime scene photos she immediately asks why he labeled it a triple murder as it appears that the mother killed her family before committing suicide. Buxton proffers a chilling rejoinder: “Because that’s how it was supposed to look.” An entire family wiped out with the murder staged to implicate the mother. The scene resonates with Nina on a deeply personal level: she was one of society’s throwaways, a malnourished, scrawny baby who was discovered in a dumpster. Thrown into the foster-care system, life spiraled downward after that ignominious beginning. Nina is fascinated by Hispanic folktales, like La Llorona. According to one rendition La Llorona, or “The Weeping Woman,” is an anguished young wife who is betrayed by the husband she loves. In despair, she kills her children and then herself to show her husband the extent of her agony. The fable posits that she’s instantly remorseful but is still banished back to purgatory on Earth, where she relentlessly searches for her lost babies.

Nina could not have imagined that she would be dispatched to Phoenix, Arizona, to investigate the deceptively obvious, fresh crime scene. The team is tasked with linking this attack to another triple murder that occurred four years earlier and over two thousand miles away. They uncover a path that spirals back almost thirty years—every Leap Year, a new family died, seemingly at the hands of the mother. Nina is racked with the similarities between the crime scenes and the terrifying La Llorona folktale. The Behavioral Analysis Unit is up against a formidable serial killer. First things first—what kind of unsub are they dealing with? Wade is asked to create a profile for a “person who repeatedly murders entire families, including the most innocent victims of all—newborns.” Kent chimes in.

“He’s not schizophrenic, because this level of sophistication and planning demonstrates that he knows exactly what he’s doing,” Kent said, adding his observations to the mix. “That leaves one overriding conclusion.” He looked around the room. “Our unsub is a psychopath.”

Wade and Kent go further. Based on the initial evidence they believe they’re dealing with a person with antisocial personality disorder (ASPD). As Wade puts it, people with ASPD “truly don’t care if someone gets hurt as long as they get what they want.”

The most significant indicator in the unsub’s criminal history is timing. The first family slaughter happened on Leap Year and every four years thereafter, for decades, another family with a newborn daughter is erased. Is the unsub trying to fix some trauma from his past?

A flash of insight struck Nina. “Whatever went wrong—his point of inflection—happened on a leap day. That’s why he tries to fix it every leap day. When it doesn’t work, he has to wait another four years to try again.”

A Different Dawn is a heart-stopping journey on parallel tracks: police detection and personal. Nina’s team, dogged by gonzo reporter James Snead, painstakingly recreate a serial killer’s playbook. Concurrently, Nina is haunted by her past, particularly when she and Phoenix detective Perez uncover a welfare check twenty-eight years earlier that resulted in officers delivering a baby. NB: Maldonado inserts plenty of dark humor to slightly lighten the grim story—like Nina recalling welfare checks she made in the past: “In Nina’s experience, this often led to discovering a month’s worth of newspapers in the driveway, flies all over the inside of the windows, and a decomposing body inside. She’d left a life of glamour behind to join the Bureau.” The baby delivered by the officers was inadvertently sent home from the hospital with the family that were the unsub’s first victims. To say more would be to enter spoiler territory.

Isabella Maldonado has created an unforgettable hero in Nina Guerrera. The line from the film The Naked City comes to mind: “There are eight million stories in the naked city. This has been one of them.” Count me in as a reader who is eagerly anticipating the third Nina Guerrera story.

A Different Dawn
August 29, 2021
Book Review

A Different Dawn
Isabella Maldonado
reviewed by Lou Jacobs



readersremains.com | Goodreads


Criminal Minds ran for 15 seasons and ended on the 324th episode on 2/19/20 after attracting a legion of fans. Rejoice fellow junkies! Another elite team of FBI agents have been formed by Isabella Maldonado. Your fix is right here!

Maldonado utilizes her more than two decades of law enforcement to craft a wonderful addition to the lore of the elite members of the B.A.U. (Behavioral Analysis Unit, based in Quantico, Virginia. Called in by local police forces to assist in the investigation and apprehension of the nation’s most heinous crimes. She tells this entertaining and insightful story of this newly formed team.

Featured is Special Agent Nina Guerrera, who already has gained notoriety in aiding in the resolution of a high-profile case in Phoenix (as told in the first book of this series). The local newspapers have given her the nomme de plume of “Warrior Girl” (which is the Spanish translation of her name). She answers to Supervisory Special Agent Gerard Buxton, as do the other members of the team. Dr Jeffrey Wade, her mentor and the most senior criminal profiler in the FBI. Even though in his early fifties, he has a doctorate in psychology and a couple decades of experience. The team is rounded out with Special Agents: Jake Kent and Kelly Breck. Kent is a former Navy SEAL and strikes a formidable image with his muscular build and sandy colored buzz cut and somewhat incongruous black framed glasses. Breck is the cyber specialist and never without her laptop. Her sassy attitude is softened by her southern accent.

The tale begins with insight into the origins of Nina’s strengths and motivations with a glimpse into her childhood, twenty years earlier at the age of seven. The scene is a girl’s group home in Fairfax, Virginia. Nina never knew her family, and was reportedly left in a dumpster. Even at seven, Nina was curious and protective of the younger girls. There was little expectation of being adopted. An incident is described when one of the older girls and a bully was taunting and terrifying with the story of La Llorona (“yorona”). The wailing (or weeping) woman whose misdeeds in life have left her spirit trapped on Earth, where she torments little children. ( A Latina ghost story / folk tale that has been forever passed on, and was even the source of a horror film ). Basically, the wife has found out about her husband’s infidelity, and in retribution she drowns his beloved two children. So remorseful she then drowns herself in the same river. She is denied admission to heaven and is banished back to purgatory on Earth until she can find her children. ) It is said to the children, if they hear her, they are next to die. The bully also taunts Nina by calling her “dumpster baby” while Nina comforts and protects several younger girls.

Immediately the reader is subjected to a heinous situation. The UnSub creeps into a home using night-vision goggles, while the inhabitants are peacefully sleeping. Acknowledged are years of planning and weeks of surveillance. (“deaf to pleas, blind to tears and without mercy”) The first stop is the nursery where the newborn girl is suffocated. The lifeless bundle is carried into the master bedroom. The father was quickly dispatched with a single gunshot to the heart. The wife was found in the bathtub, dressed in a nightgown with a pistol resting in her right hand and a single gunshot wound in her right temple. It initially looked to the first responding officers that the mother killed her family before turning the gun on herself. The staging was almost perfect.

The Phoenix police homicide detective noted a small incongruity. A trace amount of blood was noted in the entryway foyer. Crime analysis matched this specimen to that of the father. An impossibility since he died instantly in bed. Further investigation, using an electrostatic lifter, uncovered a barely visible shoe print (“ghost print”) on the foyer floor that did not match anything owned by the father. Submission to the database (VICAP- Violent Criminal Apprehension Program) found a match from a case four years earlier in New York City. A mother, father and newborn girl were murdered in their Manhattan apartment, also staged to look like a double-homicide-suicide; and, also occurring on February twenty-ninth (on leap day)

Based on these horrendous events, the B.A.U. team was tasked to determine whether the two cases are related and to assist in the investigation by the Phoenix police department. The team immediately began the search to uncover any other murders that were misidentified anywhere in the country. With painstaking effort, they uncovered a clear pattern with the UnSub hitting on leap day (therefore every four years) dating back to the oldest incident twenty-eight years ago, also in Phoenix. All eight murders occurred in major cities. Obviously, they were dealing with a unique predator. Although severely disturbed, he was able to pass himself off as normal, and probably charming … and apparently able to blend invisibly into his surroundings. He is ruthless, manipulative, and completely without conscience. In other words, a self-disciplined psychopath. But what is the purpose of his elaborate staging? Obviously creating a scenario that he wanted the police to believe, but more importantly it satisfied an emotional need. Strap in while the wild and twisted hunt begins! Guererra will uncover revelations that rock her world.

Isabella Maldonado crafts a riveting and complex tale with concise and gritty prose that progressively ratchets up the suspense and tension resulting in a page-turner that can’t be put down. Her law enforcement experience allows her to be both insightful and entertaining in exploring the many terms encountered in crime fiction. A clear understanding is obtained in regards to MO, signature, precipitating stressors, as well as the difference between sociopath and psychopath—and the newer terminology of ASPD (antisocial personality disorder).

Thanks to Isabella for this wonderful ride, and to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer Books for supplying an uncorrected proof in exchange for an honest review.

If you love shows like Criminal Minds and FBI then this book is for you. An Unsub with a modus operandi (MO) and a creepy killer....what else do you need? Oh yes a Happy Ending and yes this book has that as well. The book is very detailed as the writer use to actually work for the FBI. Makes you feel like your are right in the investigation.

Thank you Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer for the ARC of this book. I read The Cipher, the first book in this series, and enjoyed it. I jumped at the chance to read book 2 in the series. I wasn't disappointed. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised that I loved this more than I loved the first book. I loved watching the team and Nina evolve and grow. I also loved learning more about Nina's backstory. I can't wait for the next book in the series!

It is a concidence that these murders are happening on Leap Day? Or are we dealing with a serial killer who's making a statement? FBI proceedureal. Perfect follow up to The Cipher. I loved how both mysteries involve Nina's past, but they also stand alone. Looking forward to the next book in the series. Definately recommened.

A Different Dawn by Isabella Maldonado is the 2nd book in her "Nina Guerrera" series.
The Cipher, the 1st book in the series, was excellent and this book is just as good!
The author's background in law enforcement and the FBI allows her to give us a realistic thriller story based on fictional character, FBI Special Agent Nina Guerrera, "Warrior Girl".
Nina and her team are faced with a serial killer when two different horrific crimes are connected. The tension builds as complications in the case arise with many twists and turns occurring. The extra element of Latin folklore combined with Nina's backstory was an excellent addition to the story.
Highly Recommended!

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for an arc of this novel in exchange for my honest review.