Title: A Grim Reaper’s Guide to Catching a Killer
Author: Maxie Dara
Series: S.C.Y.T.H.E. Mystery #1
Much thanks to Maxie Dara, Berkley, and NetGalley for allowing me to read a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.
The title’s misleading; to call it a guide implies the MC has killer-catching experience, but it’s quite the opposite. She has no idea what she’s doing.
It’s a bit of a slow burn because Kathy’s a very reluctant heroine, but once Conner starts to cooperate the pace picks up, and then when Simon gets involved things move even faster. That said, it does feel now and again like the characters are sitting on their hands and waiting out the clock—which is exactly what they’re doing. Dara usually utilizes those scenes for character development, which is excellent, but the reader might still feel some lag. The stakes keep rising but the rise in tension pauses, if that makes sense, so it’s a tad frustrating.*
The biggest plot hole I noticed is probably the characters playing hide and seek. Kathy’s worked for Scythe for several years and has only been separated from her husband and living in an apartment for less than a year. It seemed odd to me that the address on file for her was the apartment and not still the house she’d shared with Simon for a decade. I imagine most people would neglect to perform the formality of updating their address, especially in tenuous circumstances, but in the case that someone was proactive, I have a hard time believing their previous address wouldn’t still be logged somewhere, on the internet if not within the company.
My point being, when the killer failed to find what they wanted at Kathy’s apartment, why didn’t they check out the house right away? That’d be my first guess on where to find her, followed by her closest friend, and they searched the friend’s place right away, yet never searched her estranged husband’s house. It became very obvious that Dara was purposefully allowing the bads to remain obtuse about where to look for Connor until she was ready for the black moment.
*The three days after Connor was taken was a notable example of waiting out the clock. Why the timeline couldn’t have been tweaked to skip that lag, or at least shorten it, I don’t know. Another example was needing someone else to work on Connor’s phone, but that one I forgive because it prevented Simon being ex machina.
All that said, I did greatly enjoy this book. I loved Connor’s development, Kathy’s development. I loved Jo, I loved Simon. I especially love Kathy and Simon’s romance. They’re far from the typical romantic hero and heroine, at least physically speaking, and that’s part of what makes their love so beautiful. And refreshing! Not all heroes need to be broody and arrogant alphas, and not all heroines feisty super models. Actually, come to think of it, the villains were the beauties. Interesting.
I could go on for days about the character development. Like how Kathy increasingly called Connor by name instead of case number. Connor’s teenage jargon (which showed me my age because a few times I didn’t understand the slang). But the other characters were well realized also. Health crazy Stu—Stu’s biceps!—bad cliche Jesse, quirky Caroline, rascally Jo. And how the video game played in—brilliant. Not sure it was significant enough to use “Owen” like they do, but whatevs. The timeline was clunky, but other aspects of the writing were outstanding.
Except the author’s penchant for “offensively inoffensive.” She only used it twice, but it’s unusual enough to be noticeable. And I honestly don’t know what it means. So both times it appeared I paused and puzzled over it.
Oh, how I adored this story. I’m torn about it being a series. On one hand, all the character arcs are so gorgeously complete and hard-won that I don’t want to see them battle new conflicts and doubts. I want them to just stay eternally happy in Storyland. On the other, I want to see them again and accompany Kathy as she digs into the world of Scythe. I’m nervous about that, though….sometimes picking apart the lore can destroy some of the intrigue. Like, the birth of a child is a beautiful miracle…..but when you study the biology of it, the reality of it, it’s terrifying and gross. So. I’ll probably look out for the next book, but I’d be just as happy leaving this one to stand alone.
