Series: Nina Guerrera # 1
Format: Kindle, 336 pages
Release Date: November 1, 2020
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Source: Kindle Unlimited
Genre: Thrillers / Suspense
To a cunning serial killer, she was the one that got away. Until now…
FBI Special Agent Nina Guerrera escaped a serial killer’s trap at sixteen. Years later, when she’s jumped in a Virginia park, a video of the attack goes viral. Legions of new fans are not the only ones impressed with her fighting skills. The man who abducted her eleven years ago is watching. Determined to reclaim his lost prize, he commits a grisly murder designed to pull her into the investigation…but his games are just beginning. And he’s using the internet to invite the public to play along.
His coded riddles may have made him a depraved social media superstar—an enigmatic cyber-ghost dubbed “the Cipher”—but to Nina he’s a monster who preys on the vulnerable. Partnered with the FBI’s preeminent mind hunter, Dr. Jeffrey Wade, who is haunted by his own past, Nina tracks the predator across the country. Clue by clue, victim by victim, Nina races to stop a deadly killer while the world watches.
The Cipher is the first installment in author Isabella Maldonado's Nina Guerrera's series. FBI Special Agent Nina Guerrera escaped a serial killer’s trap at sixteen. She spent time as a beat cop and went on to the FBI academy where she became a successful FBI agent. When she’s jumped in a Virginia park, a video of the attack goes viral. Legions of new fans are not the only ones impressed with her fighting skills. The man who abducted her eleven years ago is watching. Shortly afterwards a young girl is found murdered and clues are left to suggest that Nina's attacker of 11 years earlier is the killer.
Determined to reclaim his lost prize, he commits a grisly murder designed to pull her into the investigation but his games are just beginning. He publishes them on his social media platforms for the whole world to see and to try to solve them, thus creating an uncontrollable mass chaos where people from all over the USA start clue-hunting much to the inconvenience of the FBI. His cruelty, cleverness, and his obsession with special agent Nina Guerrera that led him to all the atrocities I thought were the most intriguing aspects of the story.
Nina and her temporary team of agents, including FBI’s preeminent mind hunter, Dr. Jeffrey Wade, the Behavioral Analysis Unit guy who nearly got her booted out because he thought her judgment couldn't be trusted. Nina and her team play cat and mouse with a horrible serial killer known as The Cipher. They track the predator across the country. Clue by clue, victim by victim, Nina races to stop a deadly killer while the world watches. Each gruesome murder, every social media post goes viral, leaving the Nina and her FBI team not only racing against time to stop the killer but also against amateur sleuth-wannabes who want to be the first to solve the crimes and win a prize.
The Cipher did nothing new as far as detective thrillers go, being a classic "guy abused by father turns into a psycho serial killer" story. What made it more enjoyable for me was the killer who called himself The Cipher and his tactics. I also liked how the author uses her years of training to make this story more realistic. As with the previous series, it seems the author writes a trilogy and then moves on to something new. So, let's finish this series, shall we?
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