(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)

A young girl is snatched from her rural Iowa school in broad daylight. The child is later found murdered, her body hanging from a tree.
When retired San Francisco Police Inspector Bob Farrell reads a newspaper account of the horrific crime, he realizes his worst nightmare has come true. The same remorseless predator a government agency stopped him from putting away twenty years before is once more on the loose.
Farrell enlists the aid of rookie Iowa deputy Kevins Kearns, who is tortured by his inability to prevent the kidnapping. As the murderer wreaks a trail of blood and destruction across North America, the duo sets out to track down their lethal prey.
But Farrell and Kearns aren't playing by the rules any more than the killer is, and soon the F.B.I. has them all in its sights…

*2.5 stars*

Somewhat disappointed with this book. On the face of it, I was kind of excited to read it. By the end, the clichés and tropes were far too much for me...

But lets give credit where it is due first: the action sequences were brilliant. The laugh-out-loud dialogue was cool (although not quite enough of it) and the violence isn't too graphic (although, God knows it could have been much worse...)

However, here's a list of things I didn't like:

* Retired cop comes out for "one last case"
* Rookie cop out of his depth
* Bumbling, inept FBI agents
* Turf battle between local cops and the FBI...

Have you read these things before? Sure you have - and saw it in every cop/buddy film in the 80's...

And that's a shame as the link to the stuff that happened back in Vietnam could have really been a great basis for this novel but it was more of a plot device than anything else...

I will try another of Lynch's novels down the track and see if he improves his characters along the way...let's face it, Kearns can only be a rookie cop once, right???


Paul
ARH