The Kill List by Nichole Christoff (thoughts)

The Kill List was a solid debut to this new mystery series and was quite the page turner for me.  I easily found myself engrossed within its' pages and this didn't let up until the very end.  I'm left eager to continue on with this series and read more by this author!

In this book Jamie Sinclair is asked to investigate when her ex-husband's daughter is kidnapped.  Despite all of the hard feelings between the two of them, Jamie drops everything to rush to the army base where he and his new family live in search of his three year old daughter.  Almost instantly Jamie begins to realize that her ex-husband is hiding something and the questions don't stop there.  Soon Jamie finds herself in deathly danger and is unsure who she can trust.  Will she be able to find the missing girl before time runs out?

I really enjoyed this book from the very beginning.  The author starts this book out with a really intense scene from a case that Jamie is finishing up and it really just takes off from there.  This book was filled with suspense along with twists and turns.  It was easy to see that there was something off when it came to the little girl's kidnapping but as the reader you don't know what exactly.  I was left questioning everything and everyone trying to figure out for myself what could have happened to that little girl.  I didn't care for Jamie's ex-husband Tim Thorp at all thanks to all of the secrets that he seems to be hiding.  He comes across as quite the jerk but it was the fact that Jamie could never get him to tell the truth despite the missing girl that sealed my dislike for him.  These secrets and evasions did add to the atmosphere of the story though and filled the pages with suspense.

One of my favorite parts of this book besides the mystery itself was the relationship that began to develop between Jamie and the military commander Barrett.  These two worked really well together and I found it refreshing how trust came slowly between them.  I am looking forward to reading future books and hopefully seeing their relationship develop even more!  Another thing that really worked well for me in this book was the way the author incorporated the military into the storyline.  I learned a bunch of different things in regards to everyday military life that I had never known while reading this book.  The author's obvious love and respect for the armed forces was very evident within the pages of this novel.  I really enjoyed all of these different aspects and felt that it added to the storyline.  The mystery was also very well done with multiple angles all coming together at the end.  I had guessed only one portion of it but even then the ending was able to give me a few more surprises! 

Overall, I am sure that you can tell how much I enjoyed this book.  The mystery was both fast-paced and intense which is definitely the mark of a good book.  I'm hoping to see the romance developed more in future books and am eager to read more in this series.  All very good things!  I can easily recommend this book to other mystery fans!  Recommended!

Bottom Line:  An intense read that had me flying through the pages!

Disclosure:  I received a copy of this book courtesy of the publisher as part of a TLC book tour.  Thoughts are my own!