My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Engaging characters and a compelling mystery of murder, revenge, and obsession.
Lethal Impulse by Steve Rush is a compelling thriller and whydunit mystery featuring a serial killer targeting sweet high school girls in a small Georgia town. With its engaging main characters and race-against-the-clock pace, I was completely immersed in the suspenseful search for the killer, so much so that I was annoyed by any interruptions to my reading.
Main character Neil Caldera, the disgraced former NYPD detective, has a genuine and dedicated servant's heart. His law enforcement career was sidelined, and he was left emotionally affected by the death of an innocent bystander by one of his bullets during his righteous shooting of a serial killer in self-defense. Pursuing a new life as a man of the cloth, Neil accepts a ministerial position at a church in the small town of Madison, Georgia. Welcomed into the community, he keeps his former life as a detective to himself. However, the local police chief, also a deacon at his church, is aware of his academic degree related to crime and law enforcement, as is the chief's wife, who had developed an uncomfortable and open sexual interest in Neil that she just won't let go.The story unfolds from multiple points of view, including Neil's, crime scene Sergeant Sloane Azevedo's, and several supporting characters. Neil is drawn into the murder of a popular local high school student at the behest of the police chief, who wants to use his expert insight into the gruesome murder to gain an advantage in solving the case before he must call in the state officials. Neil and Sloane share a mutual attraction from the start, and their increased proximity and the story's suspense soon ignites their formerly slow-burn romance into a wonderfully passionate love story.
The action moves quickly as the pair follows up on clues while the case's lead detective does his official investigation, working in concert and sharing information. The author creates a horrifically ritualistic-style murder and an evocatively terrifying crime scene, including some unique and bloody clues left behind as a taunt. Realistic details of what is seen, heard, and even smelled bring the crime scene and the subsequent investigation to life. When the murderer is uncovered, the plot shifts to finding concrete evidence to arrest them and answering the ultimate question of why.While the story was mesmerizing, and I really didn't want to put it down; I did have some quibbles with the execution of the story, such as continuity issues; some stilted, unnatural feeling or cryptic dialogue; overly descriptive passages of random physical movements by characters that were not critical to the plot; small plot holes; and questions left unanswered by close of the book. None kept me from wanting to dive back into the story.
I recommend LETHAL IMPULSE to readers of mysteries, suspense, and thrillers who are not sensitive to graphic scenes of murder.I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving an Advanced Review Copy from Reedsy Discovery.
