The third and final book in the None Shall Sleep Sequence.
Simon Gutmunsson is on the loose... Since the disastrous events of the College Killer case, the FBI is coming to terms with the fact that while catching one sociopath, they've released another. Chillingly manipulative, frighteningly intelligent, and wholly insane, Simon Gutmunsson is the worst of the worst. Now he's free, and on the run with his twin sister Kristin, and nobody in the FBI is smart enough to keep up...
Travis Bell's last investigation for FBI Behavioral Science nearly killed him. Supported by family and his partner Emma Lewis, now Travis just needs to get back on his feet. But Emma has been recruited to help the FBI hunt the ultimate sociopath, Simon Gutmunsson, and there's no way Travis is letting her go into this battle alone...
Emma Lewis has gained some perspective on life, and as her emotional walls come down, she realizes that only by working as a perfect team will she and Travis have any chance of beating the Gutmunsson twins at their own terrifying game. So in a journey that will take them from Moroccan souks to Mexican Day of the Dead celebrations, the stage is set for Simon and Kristin and Emma and Travis to meet up in an epic final showdown.
I'm gonna divide this review in several categories because I have mixed feelings and I want to explain everything properly 😂
STORY
Unlike the other two novels, this one doesn’t have a separate case they need to solve; it focuses only on catching Simon, which seems like a great idea but it ends up being lackluster. I expected far more drama and flair because hello? Simon? Also, the fact that most of the story focused on Travis and not Emma was slightly frustrating to me but more on that in the next category.
*Tom Blyth would be the perfect pick for Simon and you can't convince me otherwise
CHARACTERS
While I don’t mind reading about Travis and having him take a bigger role, I truly disliked how Emma was pushed to the side and felt like a side character. She was such a badass woman who went through so much but used those situations to become even stronger. I felt none of that here. She simply existed and looking from afar, she was this person, but when you dig deeper, when you actually think about all the scenes from the book, it’s like she lost that spark.
I’m not saying that wanting a peaceful life and escaping the FBI is a bad thing, but I know that the OG Emma would take this shot at taking down Simon with much more passion. She’d go all in.
Also, certain characters got different endings than I expected, and I was not satisfied 😂 Without spoiling anything, I'll just say the author did Kristin dirty IMO 😅
ENDING
I don’t know how I feel about the ending. The final showdown was underwhelming to say the least. It was all rushed and lacked emotion. I expected a far more dramatic „ending” for Simon, but this felt like a copy of a million other TV shows and books because truly....
🚧🚧 SPOILERS BEWARE 🚧🚧
how many „he was thrown off the cliff while trying to wound the MC” plots do we need? Not only that, but the fact that Emma stabbed herself "to shock him" was too ridiculous to me, I think that’s a bit of a cop out. It felt weird, both for the story and for the character.
🚧🚧 END SPOILERS 🚧🚧
While I could say that the showdown was just...not that interesting, that epilogue was just frustrating. It completely undermined everything and I don’t know if the author wanted to leave a bit of space to continue the series if she wanted, or if she wrote this for shock value. Whatever it is, I don’t appreciate it.
I know I only said bad things so far, but I read this book in (almost) one sitting. I read 20% one day, then read everything else the next afternoon. I couldn’t drop it, I was so pulled into this world because the writing was amazing. And I truly wanted to know what would happen to everyone.
I definitely appreciated learning more about Travis and his family. I also enjoyed reading about police work and all the officers that helped the duo find Simon. In the end, I would still recommend this series because the quality is top notch. The things I mentioned above could just be my personal peeves and not matter to someone. Or maybe it was my too high expectations that ruined the vibes for me. Who knows?
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