Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Review ~ A PERFECT OBSESSION by Heather Graham


A Perfect Obsession (New York Confidential, #2)
by: Heather Graham
Series: New York Confidential
Genre: Romantic Suspense/Mystery
Release Date: March 28, 2017
Publisher: Mira


Someone is murdering beautiful young women in the New York area and displaying them in mausoleums and underground tombs. The FBI is handling the case, with Special Agent Craig Frasier as lead.

Kieran Finnegan, forensic psychologist and part owner of Finnegan's, her family's pub, is consulting on the case. Craig and Kieran are a couple who've worked together on more than one occasion. On this occasion, though, Craig fears for the safety of the woman he loves. Because the killer is too close. The body of a young model is found in a catacomb under a two-hundred-year-old church, now deconsecrated and turned into a nightclub. A church directly behind Finnegan's in lower Manhattan.

As more women are murdered, their bodies discovered in underground locations in New York, it's clear that the police and the FBI are dealing with a serial killer. Craig and Kieran are desperate to track down the murderer, a man obsessed with female perfection. Obsessed enough to want to "preserve" that beauty by destroying the women who embody it"


Although A Perfect Obsession is part of a series, it can be read as a standalone.  There are minor references to past situations but they don’t have much impact on the interpretation of this book.  A Perfect Obsession centers around FBI Agent Craig Frasier and his Psychologist girlfriend Kieran Finnegan as they try to find a serial killer that has likely been operating in the Northeast U.S. for several years.  Most of the action takes place in New York City and there is a lot of history involved that mainly focuses on how the dead have been buried over the past several centuries.  Luckily, the history lesson doesn’t turn out to be so excessive that it ruins the flow of the book.  The killer has a certain style and it goes on display when he leaves a body in the basement of a new nightclub where an old crypt is being excavated.  The list of suspects seems to grow longer and longer as the book progresses and I still wasn’t absolutely sure who did it.

Heather Graham does an excellent job of showing how Craig and Kieran must balance their professional and personal lives within their relationship without sacrificing either.  They have a pleasant flow between them while Craig makes it a point to try and keep Kieran safe without making her seem like she is defenseless.  She has a habit of stumbling onto evidence and putting herself in harm’s way.  Craig is a capable investigator and he is also well respected by the rest of the Finnegan clan who also happen to own a centuries old bar that’s adjacent to the initial crime scene.  Consequently, the bar acts as the meeting place for all potential suspects.  Without giving too much away, I will say that the suspense was built up rather well and I never felt like the pace slowed down at all.  The murders were sort of gruesome but not particularly over the top.  I felt like the writing was very realistic and nothing was so far fetched that I couldn’t see it happening in real life.  That’s generally what I like to see in a Romantic Suspense.

All in all, I am definitely a fan.  If there are other books to come in this series, I look forward to reading them.

**Received a copy from Harlequin/Mira and reviewed voluntarily.**

Rating: 5

Purchase A Perfect Obsession from:

The New York Confidential Series:
(Clicking on the book covers will take you to Amazon.)

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