I was absolutley hooked from the first chapter on. I liked the fact that some of the less common forensics information was explained in such a way that it wasn't so overly explained that readers who already knew what they were became bored. There were a couple original aspects to this story that I really found refreshing. First off was the "hot" math teacher, and the fact that she saved Autumn from expulsion when she profiled the principal. Another theme that really isn't too common in books is Autum's desire to become an FBI agent.This leads me to a couple of issues I had that knocked this down to a four star book for me. First of all, I felt like the reader was beat over the head about Autumn being gifted. I was tired of it being brought up by chapter 6. Fortunately it seemed to get a little tamed down for the majority of the rest of the book (either that or I got good at paying no attention to it). So if Autumn is this super smart, math geek, FBI prodigy then I have a big issue with the way she reacted at the funeral. She finds the note in Celeste's hand that say's "I'm sorry." Ok, reasonable. But then she a)jumps to the conclusion it was left by the killer (ok accurate, but in a real case you wouldn't jump to that conclusion until you had proof) and b)calls 911 to talk to the detective? Ok, first off the detective would have given her his business card with his cell phone number. Second, you only call 911 in an emergency, you want to talk to a detective directly, call the freaking police station if you don't have the detective's direct number. Sorry but that seriously bugs the crap out of me. All in all I really liked the characters, in fact the whole story I was fearful of liking Caedon too much in case he winds up being the murderer. And Voss was such a sympathetic soul throughout the majority of the story it was hard not to feel sorry for him.
Overall I really enjoyed this quick read and will likely read the author's future works.
