Touching Evil Book Review

Touching Evil by Kylie Brant

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Blurb:

Forensic psychologist Sophia Channing nearly lost her life to a serial killer. Fortunately, her own quick thinking - and Division of Criminal Investigation agent Cam Prescott's efforts - rescued her from a horrifying fate. Together, Sophia and Cam jailed the sadistic predator and closed the case on his reign of terror.

But when teenagers make a gruesome discovery in the Iowa woods, Sophia and Cam realize they've only scratched the surface of an evil that runs even deeper and deadlier than one madman's twisted desires. And they don't come more twisted than the killer known as the Zombie Lover: Vance's mystery accomplice, who's still at large and stacking up bodies. With the law snapping at his heels and private demons screaming in his head, the Zombie Lover is hell-bent on carrying out a desperate, double-edged mission. He's determined to terminate Sophia, then target medical examiner Lucy Benally, who he's vowed to make his own...dead or alive.

Review by Brittany:

I received a free copy of this novel on Net Galley per my request. After reading and reviewing the first book, I knew that I was going to thoroughly enjoy continuing this series. This is not a new series; however, the book is being re-released with editorial changes and updated Kindle covers.

This book picks up where the first one left off, so I do think it's important to read the first one before jumping into this one. While the author did not make that a necessity, I do think it will enhance the reading experience.

As with the first book, Brant creates a villain that gives me the heebies. He is appropriately scary and his fetish for corpses is enough to turn me off of him. His insane rants and the discovery of his permanent marker journal entries on his living room wall gave me insight into this monster, and it was enough to scare me. The idea of real people being like this is almost too much to contemplate, which is how I know that Brant did a fabulous job.

This book also develops the relationship between Cam and Sophia. While the first book revisited their previous dalliance, this book opens up the opportunity for something real to develop between them, and I found myself rooting for the success of a relationship for them. This book also gives more of an in-depth look at Lucy Benally, an ME that the reader was introduced to in the first book, and shows a flash of a personal relationship that might be developing for her as well. I love how this author takes the time to develop her characters and their lives outside of the case that they are working on.

The end of this book leaves a bit of a cliffhanger after delivering two major plot twists, setting up the third book in the trilogy. I enjoyed this one as much as the first one. Brant has done a fantastic job of creating creepy, believable villains, while also developing real characters to be the good guys. I'm looking forward to reading the final book in the trilogy and getting some closure for all of these characters.