4 stars

Richard Laughlin and John Joseph Gallagher are FBI agents who take on special crimes. They are close to retirement age.

A concert-goer is murdered at a live concert by injection. The FBI suspects that this is the third such death. How does one catch such a killer at concert venues? This is a well written and plotted novel. It is both a taut and suspense-filled ride through music venues. The FBI Agents are brilliant, but are they smart enough to catch this guy?

This is a very challenging investigation for the FBI agents. They are being taunted by a very savvy and elusive serial killer. How to know when and where he will strike again? But that he will kill again is a certainty.

This is an exciting and suspenseful romp through music venues and through a killer’s mind.

I want to thank Netgalley and First Edition Design Publishing for forwarding to me a copy of this book to read.

This book tool me a very, very long time to get through. I enjoyed it, but I think that it could have been scaled back a little bit and still been just as good, just shorter and quicker to read. There is a serial killer on the lose and he has killed at an Aerosmith concert in Boston. The kill count starts ticking up almost immediately and before you know it there were 30, 40 deaths reported and no sign of the "unsub" (I felt like I was reading an episode of Criminal Minds) It seemed that the killer has been triggered by losing a scholarship and the kills just keep getting bigger and bigger. Police find out that he had killed his parents but did their jobs from home as them for a while to get their money and not have anyone notice that they had disappeared! Kind of genius, I have to admit. He wants to be known as the Concert Killer and all of the victims are "in concert with death". I won't go into too much more detail but like I said the kills get bigger and bigger. And are just unbelievable (or at least they were at the time I read this a few months ago, now with there being a mass shooting at a concert maybe I feel a bit different.) The other thing about the book I didn't really like was how short the chapters were. Like a page or two. It just seemed to chop the book up a lot and I could never get a flow going which may be why it took me so long to finish! If that is a detail you can ignore and you don't mind longer books and enjoy a good concert murder mystery I think you will enjoy this one.

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review, I was not otherwise compensated.

In Concert with Death have a really great plot. It is also full of suspense but not much of a mystery since the killer was identified early on. From then on, it is just about a matter of catching him, trying to one-up the elusive suspect. I like how the author came up with the idea of using concerts as the venue for killing and so is the method. It is perfectly unique and really challenging. The chase in trying to catch the killer is something that is fascinating to read. You can tell that Mr. Buckley is someone who's not only knowledgeable about the process but also someone who's familiar with it and then some under his belt.

But though, this is one exciting read, I have some issues that I can't get passed on. I am not a fan of the author's writing style. There were a lot of times I have to go back on a page or two so I can know who is in the conversation because the speakers are not indicated. And most of the time, it is confusing and breaks the momentum.

One more thing is how it ends. Not the case, I am very much satisfied with how the chase ended. What I mean is how the author stretched the story after that. I really think that it was not necessary, but it is just my opinion.

I may have a lot of issues on In Concert with Death but I still enjoyed the thrill and suspense that it offers, which is what the book is about in the first place. I'd still say it is a solid read and I won't have trouble recommending it to people who love them some suspense and thrill.

Great for those days where you don't have too much time, fast read but well written and able to hold your attention throughout.