Title: Critical Instinct
Series: Instinct
Author: Janie Crouch
Read copy: eBook (Kindle)
Published: October 31, 2017
Publisher: Kindle Press
ASIN: B0757746ZZ
Every single person Paige has drawn has ended up dead. And now she’s drawn herself.
Paige Jeffries’ is the darling of the art world. Her works are original, compelling. But after a brutal attack two years ago—a savage beating from an unknown assailant—Paige has become all but a recluse. She knows her mind is broken. In her sleep she’s drawing scenes of violence. Murders. Going to the cops isn’t an option because they already think she’s crazy. And they may be right.
Seasoned homicide detective Brett Wagner is asked to look into a cold case nobody wants: the assault and battery of a local artist who claims to have drawn a picture of her own attack before it even happened. He remembers shy Paige from high school, and is driven to find her attacker, to believe her when nobody else does, to protect the innocent beauty.
Because when he witnesses firsthand what Paige is drawing in her sleep, Brett realizes they are scenes from actual cases. Cases that had no connection until now. Portland has a secret serial killer, and Paige is somehow linked to his mind.
And he’s coming for her.
My rating:
Two years ago, artist Paige Jeffries was attacked in a seemingly random incident. She's been drawing unknown and dead women ever since.
When homicide detective Brett Wagner transfers back to Portland, his superior (and family friend) asks him to look into an cold battery-and-assault case. The victim is a reclusive artist who claims to have drawn herself injured in a hospital long before the attack happened. But Brett doesn't see Paige as an attention-seeker and when he starts connecting dots an looking for similarities, an eerie pattern emerges.
Paige was a victim of a serial killer. As she survived, she broke the killer's pattern and it's just a matter of time when he'll attempt again.
Unlike the first book this was a bit meatier in both the character and story department. The characters were more and better developed and fleshed out which resulted in a more rounded story and reflected in the romance. It was still instantaneous, but the amount of time Paige and Brett spent together, getting to know each other, him getting to know her abilities, working together to find the killer, seemingly slowed down the tempo, making the time-frame of the story appear longer than it really was.
I was looking for the same traits in the Brett/Paige dynamic as with Conner and Adrienne as far as him possibly tampering her abilities, but he wasn't. It had probably to do with a less "aggressive" aspect of Paige's talent, though I'm sure she'd appreciated some sort of reprieve anyway.
The suspense was very well done and developed. I much appreciated the "leg-work" of the investigation, that the guys put some actual detecting work in instead of relying to Paige to perform a miracle (at it happened with her sister). Despite her drawings provided important pieces of the puzzle, it was Brett and his partner, Alex, that actually found the perp. Whose motive was rather flimsy, but that's a serial killer for you.
A well-rounded story with great characters and dynamics, a solid romance and a good suspense.
P.S. I have a bone to pick, though. In the first book it was established Conner had to be blocks away from Adrienne for her "talent" to work, while in this one he just had to step out of the room? Did they practice in the years they were together? A token explanation would've been appreciated.
4 stars, bodyguard/military/merc/gov/cop/spy, contemporary, contemporary romance, Janie Crouch, suspense/mystery/adventure/thriller
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