Title: Wolfhunter River
(Stillhouse Lake #3)
Author: Rachel Caine
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Crime
First published: April 23rd 2019
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Finished reading: March 30th 2019
Pages: 330
“My past is a wrecking ball. I’ve always known it was out there, rushing toward me. I just never imagined how much it would hurt when it finally hit.”
*** A copy of this book was kindly provided to me by Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! ***
I’m a huge fan of the first two Stilhouse Lake books (both were 5 star reads for me, and I don’t hand those ratings out easily), so it’s easy to say I might have screamed when I saw that an ARC of Wolfhunter River was up for grabs on Netgalley. I have been highly anticipating this third installment of one of my all time favorite serial killer thriller series… And this might just have been the problem, because while I still highly enjoyed my time with Wolfhunter River, I don’t think the story actually lives up to the first two books. I’ll try to explain why without giving away any spoilers. The first thing I wasn’t 100% convinced about was the plot. I’m not saying it’s a bad plot and there are definitely fireworks and a lot of action and violence involved, but the first part of the story went on too long about previous events and the Wolfhunter part was a little too much for me to consider it completely believable. Plot twists, flying bullets, conspiracy theories, a kidnapped little girl, a shady town… There is a lot going on and having all of this linked with Gwen Proctor and her family can get a little too much. The whole Lost Angels and secret past element is something that can go both ways for you, because if you think about it it can come over as a bit cliche. The writing is mostly on fire though and once I was past the first few chapters and the focus turned to Wolfhunter, I dropped everything I was doing and kept turning those pages to see how things would end. While I did started to doubt the credibility of it all and some things were just a little too farfetched to be believable (and the ending was just too convenient of a wrap up), Wolfhunter River was still a very entertaining ride with a lot of promise for the next book.
WARNING: Possible spoilers! Please don’t read this summary if you haven’t read the first two books of this series yet. I’ll keep the summary super short but it’s impossible to keep it completely spoiler-free…
Gwen Proctor might be wanting to move on after being acquitted of helping her serial killer husband and then having to escape him all over again, but there are others who don’t believe in her innocence and want to make her pay no matter what. Gwen no longer wants to hide as she’s trying to build a normal life for her kids, but that is easier said than done as she still has a lot of enemies set out to destroy her. When a woman from Wolfhunter calls Gwen asking for help, she initially doesn’t take notice but soon sees it as a way to escape life in Stillhouse Lake for a little while… But things turn out to be way more dangerous and shady in Wolfhunter than she could ever imagine.
While I don’t feel Wolfhunter River was as good as the previous two books, I can’t deny I still highly enjoyed my time with this serial killer thriller. Suspenseful, twisted, explosive and lightning fast: once you get past the first few chapters and the setting changes to Wolfhunter, it will be really hard to stop reading before you reach that final page. I had some doubts about the credibility of the plot and the way things wrapped up was a bit too convenient to my taste, but the story has a lot of promise for what it yet to come and I’ll definitely be looking forward to the next book.
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