Ami's Hoard

3.5 stars

First thing first ... Chris Carter has become one my auto-read mystery/suspense authors for the past few years. His works entertain me. Period. Carter writes his chapter with a bait to open the next one immediately, keeps the pace fast, throws red herrings here and there, and lets our detectives struggle to find clues before the next body comes. They're not for the squeamish though; his description of the crime is vivid. His murder scenes are of often very bloody, the victims suffered from gruesome form of torture or killing method.

"I Am Death" offers the same formula. I was happy that Garcia was back as Hunter's partner in this book, he made me worried in book #4, and in book #5 he wasn't even around (though that book was good in a different way -- it was more 'personal' in terms of Hunter's background).

So those are the good things.

BUT, just as I finished this -- my initial reaction towards it was that I felt depressed. Yep, this was depressing :(



The answer is inside the spoiler-tag -- it's MAJOR SPOILER, as in I will mention the murderer's name, so avoid it at all cost except if you actually want to be spoiled.

On another note, I did wish that I got to know Hunter's mind a little bit more, because Carter doesn't really let readers know about Hunter's thinking process... he just lets the explanation comes from Hunter's mouth later on. It is probably like reading Holmes' investigation process, where you just end up baffled (or annoyed) at the way he solves the cases. Which means the ending also feels rushed when Hunter is able to connect all the dots (but it happens inside his head!).

All in all, while it was still as enjoyable, I have to deduct the star-rating because of the uncomfortable feeling I had to endure. So sorry for this, book.