The Truth You Told by Brianna Labuskes Book Review

About the Book:

Forensic psychologist Callum Kilkenny lost his wife, Shay, to the very serial killer he’d hunted for five years. When Nathaniel Conrad—known as the Alphabet Man, for his love of tattooing codes onto his victims’ bodies—was condemned to death row, Callum thought the game of cat and mouse was over. But just before execution, Nathaniel drops a bombshell: he’s not the one who murdered Shay.

After analyzing the killer’s taunting, coded letters to authorities—one for each victim—FBI forensic linguist Raisa Susanto believes him. The discrepancies bear it out. So was it a copycat? A partner in crime? Or something more sinister? If Nathaniel knows the answer, Raisa fears he’ll be taking that closely guarded secret to his grave.

As Raisa and Callum are pulled into an investigation to solve Shay’s murder, it reopens old traumas that cut deeper than they could imagine. Before someone else dies, Raisa must decipher the unbelievable truth in an ever-twisting case built on a foundation of lies.

My Review:

I like this series as it is different from your typical FBI agent thriller. Agent Raisa solves mysteries by looking at word usage, sentence construction, and other features. This means the plot concentrates more on the thinking and writing of a villain than on suspenseful action. Raisa (and others) realize one of the murders credited to a serial killer was, in fact committed by someone else. There was a twist at the end I did not see coming.

This novel has a couple of explorations of when a person actually becomes a serial killer. Is a person wired to be evil and a murderer? Is it caused by a childhood trauma? What triggers the potential to the point where an individual actually begins killing? Since the killer used ciphers there is quite a bit about them too.

This novel is the second in a series and the earlier book should be read first to really understand this one. While I really liked the first novel, this one did not grab me as much. Perhaps too much was centered on the past. There are flash backs to earlier events to set us up with more information on the current investigation into a previous murder. Perhaps there it was the amount of text devoted to the FBI agent whose wife's murder is the subject of this plot. I was happy to see, however, that the Raisa and Callum have serious discussions without sliding into a romance.

It looks like there is another novel planned for this series and I have liked what I have read so far that I will be looking for it.

My rating: 4/5 stars.

You can read my review of the first book in the series, The Lies You Wrote.

About the Author:

Brianna Labuskes is the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and Amazon Charts best-selling author of psychological thrillers and historical fiction. Her books have been translated into several languages worldwide. She grew up in Pennsylvania, lived in Washington D.C. for many years and now calls Asheville, N.C. home. She enjoys traveling, hiking and spending time with her pup. For more: visit her at briannalabuskes.com.

Thomas and Mercer, 320 pages.

I received a complimentary egalley of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.

(My star ratings: 5-I love it, 4-I like it, 3-It's OK, 2-I don't like it, 1-I hate it.)