This book was fine, but it didn’t quite connect with me. I think others may appreciate it more than I did.

I did really enjoy this book especially the aspect of being able to see your past lives in your dreams it did take a while for me to get into though

I feel like this was a great debut book and has the potential to become an amazing series. I loved the narrator and the characters. I enjoyed the flashbacks to the past. However, there just wasn’t enough suspense for me. I felt like we knew almost right away who the killer was. Personally, I prefer books with more suspense and not knowing until the end who did it.

A police procedural with a touch a paranormal. A body is found in what appears to be a shallow grave. Once the medical examiner arrives, additional bodies are found. The main character Kaitlyn has vivid dreams that provide leads on the current case as well as cases and situations that assist her in finding answers. This is a fairly fast paced story set in picturesque Seattle. There are twists and turns to please everyone.  The narrator was great, I was able to listen at 1.5x, and was able to comprehend every inflection and character.

4 stars

I read the audiobook and the narrator was not a good fit for this book! I would’ve given this book a little more if it wasn’t for that.

The story itself and the main character are interesting.

Despite having a preference for first person POV, I wish the book was written in third person. The internal dialogue was really annoying and it was hard to know when it was internal monologue or just a description of what was going on.
The dialogues were not realistic more often than not. But I’m not sure if it’s the narrator’s delivery or the writing.

The pacing was fine. As a true crime girly, I’m not sure if the serial killer made sense and if the evidence was actually enough to go to trial but at the same time people have been convicted with less I guess.

I would be inclined to read more books as a palette cleanser but it would have to be a different narrator.

This story really caught my attention, because the main character, Kaitlyn Kruse, has a supernatural gift and her partner does not know about it. This ability helps her solve a lot of cases. Kaitlyn can remember her past lives in her dreams and can use them to solve the current mysteries. The chapters switch between the now and Kaitlyn’s dream sequences, and you figure out the pattern pretty quickly. There are many twists and turns, and there are a few red herrings along the way. I really liked the narrator's voice and how she effortlessly switched between characters. If you like the supernatural in your thrillers, I would recommend this book.

Thank You NetGalley and HighBridge Audio for allowing me to review this audiobook

Killer Insight by Karoline Anderson
Narrated by Shannon Condon
Provided by NetGalley

I would classify this as a slow chick-lit police procedural with a hint of the supernatural. The narration was good once the right speed was chosen. For me that was around 1.5 -1.75.

I was initially drawn to the story by the blurb, thinking the inclusion of past-lives might add an interesting aspect to the story. Sadly, this was not the case. The use of it was so limited and the explanation of the ‘realistic’ kind of dreams came off as mundane.

The author clearly did a lot of research for this story. Unfortunately, they seem to have included all of it regardless of whether it was relevant or not. It was crazy how much of the ‘procedure’ from ‘police procedure’ was detailed when it wasn’t necessary and came off as a teaching exercise. In addition, instead of utilising subtext, it was overridden by explanations.

Personally, I found this a struggle to get through. If the book hadn’t been provided by Netgalley, it would have been a dnf.

2.25⭐️
Wow.. so much to unpack but it would be hard to do without spoilers but I’m going to try.

I’ll start with the positive.
The audio narrator did a great job but for most it would have to be sped up at least a little as it’s painfully slow which doesn’t match the feeling the book tries to convey. But her different voices were great and she didn’t over dramatize it which is great.

The story itself was enjoyable. It was clearly set up to be a potential series even being very obvious about a future love interest. It came off as the author didn’t want to pull focus from everything else to get a relationship underway but wanted to introduce potential.

Now for the challenges…

The entire book sounded like the author was talking down to the reader. The explaining of such basic things was condescending. For example they talk about a 3 year old and literally offered that (paraphrase) “of course the three year old could be ruled out as a serial killer.” Ya think?

I don’t mind when authors use “big words” instead of the typical words used in books and everyday conversation but when there are conversations like a doctor talking to a patient you have to make it realistic. Like saying “I don’t think you broken your arm” you wouldn’t say radius and ulna in the context that the author did. I actually said out loud that the book sounded like a doctor writing a book and then come to find out after the fact that the author is instead an MD.

I think that’s part of the problem. It’s one that can be fixed easily with having an editor soften the prose and smooth it out but that didn’t happen here. Other issues are that the POV jumping without chapter headings of who was talking and when was very jarring and harder to keep track of especially since the FMC dreams about her past lives.

One last thing I’ll mention is when you above a book where it is set in the real world with real places etc.. and then you have something unrealistic in police and or court procedure it comes off that reader wasn’t done properly.

So if you can deal with a bunch of execution issues the story has merit and with some experience this debut author may have some great books down the road.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hachette Audio for the free audio ALC so I could leave my voluntary review.

My rating system since GoodReads doesn’t have partial stars and I rarely round up.

⭐️ Hated it
⭐️⭐️ Had a lot of trouble, prose issues, really not my cup of tea (potentially DNF’d or thought about it)
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Meh, it was an ok read but nothing special
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Really enjoyed it! Would recommend to others
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Outstanding! Will circle back and read again