The Body Reader by Anne Frasier (thoughts)

Summary from Goodreads:

"For three years, Detective Jude Fontaine was kept from the outside world. Held in an underground cell, her only contact was with her sadistic captor, and reading his face was her entire existence. Learning his every line, every movement, and every flicker of thought is what kept her alive.

After her experience with isolation and torture, she is left with a fierce desire for justice—and a heightened ability to interpret the body language of both the living and the dead. Despite colleagues’ doubts about her mental state, she resumes her role at Homicide. Her new partner, Detective Uriah Ashby, doesn’t trust her sanity, and he has a story of his own he’d rather keep hidden. But a killer is on the loose, murdering young women, so the detectives have no choice: they must work together to catch the madman before he strikes again. And no one knows madmen like Jude Fontaine."

This book would be the perfect start to a new mystery series!  Please, please, please let there be more books featuring Jude Fontaine because I want more.  I've read a ton of thrillers and mysteries already this year and this may be one of the most intense ones so far!  Every time I say that I fly through the pages of a book from beginning to end it is the mark of a good read.  I just could not stop reading this one.  It's funny because sometimes I feel like I say that a lot...the "I couldn't put this book down" or "I couldn't read it fast enough" spiel (which is true at the time) and then a book like this comes along which makes those two sentences feel like not enough.  The intensity of this book at times took my breath away.  It was heart pounding and there were times that I had to set the book down just so that I could calm myself down.  I was that into this book and to be honest if life had let me this is one of those rare books that I could have just sat down and read in one sitting.

One of the things that made this book stand out for me was Jude Fontaine.  Her character has gone through the unimaginable and is now trying to figure out how to live afterwards.  Everything that she has gone through in the past three years is still affecting her and then to have to deal with her first murder investigation since returning to the police force.  It isn't a good combination and I loved that her mental stability almost added another layer of intensity to the story.  I could never guess how she was going to act or what she was going to do.  I just loved her character and wanted to see her solve this case and prove everyone wrong.  I'm telling you again that this could be the start of a really great mystery series just based off of the characters alone.  Add in a dark, twisted story line and you have a real winner!

Overall, I was completely stunned by just how good this book was.  It wasn't perfect (I found the ending a bit predictable if I'm being honest) but it sure was close!  I picked this book up based off of another's bloggers recommendation and I am so glad that I listened.  Isn't that just the best part of the reading world? I so do love when that happens! I already had it on my to be read list but moved it up to the top, and I'm so glad that I did.  I think that fans of thrillers and mysteries should definitely check this book out.  It won't be for everyone as it is very dark and there are many triggers that might turn some readers off.  But I'm here to say that I loved every minute of it!

Bottom Line:  Heart pounding and intense....enough said!

Disclosure:  I received a copy of this book thanks to the publisher and NetGalley.