BOOK REVIEW: After the Kill, by Cary Allen Stone

 BOOK REVIEW:  After the Kill, by Cary Allen Stone


  After the Kill


 Eric, in his PTSD mind, needed to draw attention to the ratchet way the V.A. was handling his need for an appointment.  He was suffering the mental, after affects of three back-to-back Iraq tours during which time his parents died and two tours in Afghanistan.  He felt bombing the V.A. would only make some people happy so he chose the Sky Harbor Airport, in Phoenix Arizona, instead.

Jake, a detective on a forced retirement from the Atlanta PD, now a well recognized author of crime novels, happened to be dropping his woman off at the airport when all hell broke out there.  Fred, a friend since childhood, who was also a pilot, was critically wounded in the melee but thanks to Jake, he survives.

While the accolades where still swirling around Jake for being a hero in the Sky Harbor incident, he suffered a major hit to his existence. The West Koast Killer, a serial murderer who killed and left the designation of West Koast Killer written on the walls or the bodies of the victims, had Jake in the crosshairs.

When I grow up I want to be a serial killer, truth is you never know what is lurking in someone else’s head.  When the murderer showed up to a party at Jake’s house and Jake had not attended the party, the murderer killed the love of his life instead, in a gruesome way, just because, and was now after Jake.

This story had an easy flow as it moved from one scene to the next, in a matter of fact way, with well developed characters and a well developed plot.  This is the fourth book in Cary’s series and although references were made to the actions in the prior books, this book stood alone and all issues that arose in this book were resolved by the end of the story.  You can see more from the series here:

Cary Allen Stone

The things that stood out to me most were the friendships Jake had nurtured over the years and the thoughts and desires that led the West Koast Killer to morph into the psycopathic behaviors that the killer did so much research on, but was there another link to these behaviors?  Those friendships helped sustain Jake as he moved through the experience of losing a loved one.  Friends are important on life’s journey.  People who you can count on, who love and respect you and that is definitely something to think about.


                                                           Reviewed by:  Connie Jordan
                                                                                      January 9, 2016