Review: Hello Again – Brenda Novak

*I received a free copy of Hello Again from via Netgalley. This has in no way influenced my voluntary review, which is honest and unbiased *

SHE CAN MAKE SENSE OF A COMPLEX CRIMINAL MIND.
Evelyn Talbot, a psychiatrist at a maximum-security prison in Alaska, studies some of the world's worst serial killers. But she’s about to meet her most elusive patient at Hanover House yet: Dr. Lyman Bishop, AKA the Zombie Maker given his fondness for performing ice-pick lobotomies on his victims. A brilliant cancer researcher, Bishop is either the most cunning psychopath Evelyn has ever encountered―or he is wrongly convicted.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A CRIMINAL CAN SEE INTO HER OWN?
When a new ice-pick fatality occurs, it seems Bishop really was wrongly convicted. Except...Evelyn has a personal connection to the victim and that suggests the killer may be someone from her own past: Jasper Moore, her high school boyfriend who tortured her and left her for dead when she was only sixteen. Jasper also murdered three of her friends―and was never caught. Is he trying to send a message with this copycat crime? The only thing Evelyn knows for sure is that if Jasper is on her trail, she might not be able to escape again . . .

Hello Again was so eery, I felt the suspense during the whole story, and it just seems impossible to me that Evelyn will make it through the end. There is more than one enemy now, and my goodness, the ending left me speechless and breathless.

Story:

The suspense and the psychological thriller aspects were even stronger in Hello Again. Evelyn has more than one person she needs to be wary of, and her newest inmate is so smart and vengeful. He’s at least as scary as Justin. Several things happen to bring more heat to Justin’s revenge, and on top of that, there are murders that seem different from his MO, but could still be by him.

Amarok and Evelyn’s relationship continues to grow, but there is an added complication there as well, as his ex comes back to Hilltop. I just can’t wait to see what will happen next. The ending of Hello Again gave me chills.

Characters:

Evelyn is starting to loosen up more, while still being vigilant at work, and when it comes to following up with police to figure out where Justin might be.
Amarok is just awesome! He has so much love and hope. At the same time, he’s strong and very smart, and if someone can find out where Justin is, it’s him.
Justin is way off in this instalment, which makes him even more dangerous.

Writing style :

Hello Again is written in third person, past tense. The narrator is omniscient, and follows either Evelyn, Amarok or Justin. There is another character that is closely followed for a while as well. The pace is fairly slow, but this really worked for the kind of story it is – and it brings the eeriness to such a level it becomes impossible to ignore.

Feels :

Dread! So much dread, because I can’t see how this can ever end well for Evelyn. At the same time, there is love and hope. And

So many of the psychopaths she studied pretended to be more than they were. Most weren’t smart enough to pull off the charade.

But the reason Jasper had never been caught wasn’t lack of good police work. Seasoned detectives had done all they could; there just weren’t any leads.

She leaned away from him so that she could look into his face. She loved the contrast of his blue eyes with his black hair and dark beard growth, the strength of his jaw, the fullness of his lips. But right now she was more interested in what he was saying than his good looks.

Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

• 17 Summer COYER
• 2017 Blogger Shame

About Linda @ (un)Conventional Bookworms

Linda is an English as foreign language teacher and has a Master's degree in English Language and Literature. She's an avid reader, blogger, compulsive one-clicker and a genre omnivore. Ever since she learnt how to read she has been seen with a book or two in her hands everywhere she goes.

Subscribe to Blog via Email