Red Ribbons by Louise Phillips

They find one missing girl dead and buried, but she's been positioned in a strange way and has her plaited with red ribbons on the ends.  She didn't own that ribbon or wear her hair that way.  She also wasn't on her own for every long.  Who took her and why would he kill her?  Only a couple of days later, another young girl is found and she's in the same position.  It appears they have a serial killer.

Hachette Books and Edelweiss allowed me to read this book for review (thank you).  It will be published November 15th.

There's really nothing for the police to go on.  The killer is a loner and tells no one about his life.  He does leave a shoe print behind but it's not unique by any means.  They bring a criminal psychologist to help them get an idea of how this killer's mind works and what he might do next.

This story is written in an interesting way.  Each character tells his own story in various chapters.  You get the criminal's story from his point of view.  You find that the psychologist's marriage is foundering because of her work load and the fact they are growing apart.  You hear the other cop's frustrations.  And then there's a call about a woman in a mental hospital that says she knows who the killer is.  She's in jail because she murdered her daughter but she says she didn't do it, a man did it.  She saw him around before she set the fire to kill herself for not being a better mother.

I found it a bit confusing and it took me longer to read.  The plot is well done, there's lot of psychological discovery about the killer, and the crime started when he was just a child.  His mother was not a good person.

The ending is very scary.  He's captured the psychologist and her son and she's to be his next victim if she doesn't behave right.  He has her in a cave no one knows about.  Will she be able to save her son?  Will she be able to survive?  You'll hold your breath until you get to the end of the story.

All in all, it was a good read.  I wasn't fond of the style of the writing but the story was good.  Give it a try and tell me what you think about it.