This is a wowser! Hard to put down thriller, excellent writing, story moves along smoothly without foul language, pages of sex, and worthless descriptions! My kind of reading from the beginning, grabs you right off the bat and doesn't let go until the very last page!

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Holy Cow! Talk about jumping right into the action! This book is pretty much one you can't put down after the first few pages. While you can't put it down it's one of those all consuming reads that you don't want to end so you try to slow it down to make it last just a bit longer. The great thing is that book two is due out in May and book three in August. Alright! I love it when a author can immerse us in a series as fascinating as this one in about six months. It's definitely not going to be a one read book in a series and you forget it and move on.
There is also a 60 page prequel,The Blackest Crimson, out already that really should be read before this one. I didn't know about the prequel before writing the review and though I know it would have made Bobbie's need for revenge more palpable, there's more than enough details of her husband's and son's death to curl your toes and make you scootch just a bit closer to hubbs while reading this.
This is a great psychological thriller and the addition of the mysterious Nick Shade adds another layer to the story. The Storyteller reminds me a bit of the type of killer from Criminal Minds, really totally scary and almost unbelievable but yet still possible.
The only thing I hate about reading a book this fascinating so early in the year is that everything else I read is going to have a hard time measuring up. I also did not realize how many of Debra Webb's other books I'd read until I checked her out on my go to author reference, Fantastic Fiction. I've read oodles of her more than 50+ Colby series books and found that she has another series involving serial killers, Faces of Evil. I've already ordered the first four books in this series from PaperBackSwap and I'll be letting you know about them later. So if you're ready for that first perfect/scary/thriller read of 2017 get started on The Shades of Death series by Debra Webb.

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This book definitely didn't wow me. In fact, I only made it 2/3 through before tossing it aside.

First, it's very repetitive. Bobbie and Nick both have a habit of saying the same thing over and over. But I could forgive that. The real problem with this book is that the romance angle is not just unrealistic, it's downright disturbing.

Bobbie is a woman who (prior to the start of this book) was kidnapped by a serial killer. She was held for three weeks, tortured and raped repeatedly. He also killed her husband and indirectly caused the death of her only child. Bobbie is understandably traumatized by these events.

Now, only seven months later, another man shows up in her life. He refuses to say who he or who he works for. She finds out he's spent the last seven months stalking her -- literally following her every move via a tracking device he planted on her car, spying on her, and taking pictures of her which he tapes to his motel room wall. He comes into her house and refuses to leave, even when she asks him to. He spends the night there, even when she says she wants him to go. He repeatedly grabs and manhandles her, physically restraining her so he can push into her personal space, sticking his face right in hers, even after she tells him to stop. At one point, he even follows her to the bathroom without her knowledge and watches her undress. Once she catches him, she tells him to leave. Instead, he comes into the room, turns off the lights and begins groping her in order to remove her bra. AND SHE LETS HIM!

For Nick Shade, the word "no" doesn't mean a thing. He's sure he knows what Bobbie wants and what she needs, and he's going to give it to her whether she wants it or not. In other words, he behaves exactly like a sexual predator! I think ANY woman, but especially one who had been stalked, kidnapped, and repeatedly raped, would find this behavior abominable. And yet, the reader is supposed to see this as ROMANTIC rather than creepy AF.

Yuck.

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