What a Ride: All the Pretty Girls

All the Pretty Girls by J. T. Ellison
audio book, Narrator: Joyce Bean
Published: April 2010 by Brilliance Audio
ISBN13: 9781441838407
Listened: September 2012
Source: Digital Library
Find it at Goodreads, IndieBound, Amazon

What a thrill ride this book was. I was not familiar with this series. I found it when searching the digital library for the Percy Jackson series. All the Pretty Girls is the first book in the Taylor Jackson series.

I didn't check it out right away because I was afraid it would be too close to horror for my liking. And it did start off pretty gruesome - a dead body with severed hands.

It was a little hard to follow on audio as the cast is kind of large and there isn't one crime, but two crimes being investigated. There is the main murder mystery - the Southern Strangler. Then there is serial rapist - the Rain Man. The secondary crime seemed a little odd. I had to check to make sure this was the first book in the series. In some ways, it was as if we should already know the players and we are dropped more into the middle of the investigation. I'm not sure what the point of having this second story except to divide the reader's attention.

The primary murder mystery had a number of twist and turns. At about 60 percent, I was sure I knew who the Southern Strangler was. But then the cops thought so too and the doubt began to creep in. There was a curve ball thrown and I'm not sure if missed something or if it really was out of left field. The ending was shocking.

I definitely want to check out more of this series. I like Taylor and Baldwin (who I hope is in the rest of the books). Unfortunately it doesn't look like the digital library has any of the others and a quick search of my library's online catalog showed none there either.

Looking for an excellent crime thriller? Pick up a copy of All the Pretty Girls.