My rating: 3 of 5 stars
The Third Grave is book #4 in the Savannah series by Lisa Jackson which can be perfectly read as a stand-alone. Detective Reed with his partner Detective Sylvie is called to an old dilapidated Beaumont mansion after an anonymous phone call alerts them to the discovery of dead bodies in a crypt of the basement in the house. The rotting corpses are identified as the Duval girls who have been missing for the past 20 years. However, 3 girls had gone missing but only two are found so what happened to the 5-year-old Rose Duvall, the youngest of the three sisters. It is a question that fires up reporter Nikki Gillette to countermand her husband Reed’s order to stay away from the case.
The mystery is excellently plotted and keeps the reader engaged. A case that has gone cold and been lying dormant is suddenly revived but Reed and Nikki are battling personal losses along with the inquiries that someone is hell-bent on keeping quiet. As the body count increases, their jobs take a very dangerous turn.
It was interesting to see the twists and turns in the book as past lies tumble out of the closet but the storyline is quite predictable which kind of spoiled the fun for me. There is also Nikki’s character that I absolutely disliked, not sure if it was because I was going in without any background info, probably covered in the previous books of the series, but to have someone recklessly and carelessly endangering herself after repeated warnings felt too infuriating. Her hell-bent nature is acceptable only to a certain extent but I am not sure a woman who has suffered multiple miscarriages would take such unnecessary risks and jeopardize her high-risk pregnancy. It is the come what may to anyone, I would do whatever it takes that gives a very negative vibe for Nikki, at least for me.
Fans of the author would surely love this fast-paced thriller.
Expected a thunderstorm but got a drizzle💦 💦 💦
Many thanks to Net Galley, Hodder & Stoughton, and the author for a chance to read and review this book. All opinions are expressed voluntarily.
A thrilling new crime novel from the bestselling author of You Betrayed Me, perfect for fans of Sandra Brown and Iris Johansen! Return to the dark side of Savanna, Georgia where a crime writer and her detective husband are working a cold case, and hot on the trail of a killer who’s work isn’t done.
The old Beaumont mansion is a rotting shell of its once-grand self, especially after a disastrous hurricane sweeps through Georgia. The storm does more than dislodge shutters and shingles. It leads to a grisly find in the cellar. Three graves. But only two skeletons…
For Nikki, the discovery is a gift, the perfect subject for her next crime book—though Reed has made her promise not to keep involving herself in dangerous police business. But despite the increasing tension between them, Nikki can’t stay away from this story. Rumors are widespread that the burial site is the resting place of the Duval sisters—three young girls who went to the movies with their older brother, Owen, twenty years ago, and never returned. Forensics confirms that the remains belong to Holly and Poppy Duval. But where is the youngest sister, Rose?
Owen Duval was, and remains, the prime suspect, alibi or no. But as Nikki and Reed delve deep into the mystery, fractures in the case begin to show. There is more to the sisters’ disappearance than anyone ever guessed. Far from an isolated act, those deaths were just the beginning. And there will be no rest, and no relenting, until the killer has buried the twisted truth along with his victims…
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I’m thankful for the critic that found Nikki too much. I’m reading the book and about to quit reading because she is making me crazy. I get the strong women, feminist agenda, but c’mon. I also love a good story but when it turns into drama, she just gets home from hospital, intact pregnancy then falls down stairs, then can’t sit still and recover….
Exactly, I kept thinking it was coz I was going in blind without any other books in the series, but Nikki’s behavior in this one irked me a lot. Nice to know I am not the outlier with that thought. Thank You, Pam.