I’m delighted to be back with the Chris Carter blogathon reviewing the second book in the series, The Executioner. My review is written with thanks to Tracy Fenton for inviting me on the tour.

Blurb:

Inside a Los Angeles church, on the altar steps, lies the blood-soaked body of a priest. Later, the forensic team discover that, on the victim’s chest, the figure 3 has been scrawled in blood.

At first, Detective Robert Hunter believes that this is a ritualistic killing. But as more bodies surface, he is forced to reassess. All the victims died in the way they feared the most. Their worst nightmares have literally come true. But how could the killer have known? And what links these apparently random victims?

Hunter finds himself on the trail of an elusive and sadistic killer, someone who apparently has the power to read his victims’ minds. Someone who can sense what scares his victims the most. Someone who will stop at nothing to achieve his twisted aim.

Review:

I love a blogathon and I’m so pleased to be back with Robert Hunter and Carlos Garcia for the second instalment in the series. The Crucifix Killer was one of my favourite books of 2024 and The Executioner is one of my favourite books of 2025 so far. Robert Hunter and Carlos Garcia are brilliant central characters. I love their approach to the crimes they solve, which is often outside the box and I love the banter between them and the way they have each other’s backs as the stakes become higher.

The Executioner ticks all my boxes as a crime novel. As discussed, the protagonists are great characters that the reader can get behind; it’s fast paced and incredibly difficult to put down; it’s full of danger and tension and there are a few surprises along the way. The crime scenes are incredibly gory, so they are possibly not for the faint hearted, but I absolutely loved how I was transported to the action by such vivid writing.

Chris Carter is an excellent plotter and I love the way he places clues all the way through The Executioner to allow the reader to try and put the puzzle together. The reveals are often extremely clever and I was often blindsided by the direction in which the story went.

I can’t wait to read the next book in the series!

The Executioner is available from Amazon.

You can follow the rest of the blogathon here: