Format: Kindle, 352 pages
Release Date: August 10, 2021
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Source: Kindle Unlimited
Genre: Thriller / Mystery
For nearly thirty years a serial killer has been hiding in plain sight. So has the key to an FBI agent’s dark past.
A family is murdered as they sleep. FBI Special Agent Nina Guerrera and her new team are tasked with determining whether there is any link between this attack and another triple homicide from four years earlier and more than two thousand miles away. In the process, they’ll discover a serial killer so cunning that his grisly trail of death spanning nearly three decades has gone undetected. Each crime scene reminds Nina of the ghostly Latin folktale of La Llorona, which terrified her when she was an abandoned and vulnerable child. Now it’s back to haunt her.
Nina has known evil, but these macabre reenactments are as disturbing as they are baffling. Now she must uncover the meaning behind the rituals as the evidence leads her in an unexpected direction—far closer to home than anyone could have imagined. As the team narrows in on a suspect, the present collides with Nina’s past in a twist of fate that forces her to make the ultimate sacrifice.
A family is murdered as they sleep. FBI Special Agent Nina Guerrera and her new team are tasked with determining whether there is any link between this attack and another triple homicide from four years earlier and more than two thousand miles away. In the process, they’ll discover a serial killer so cunning that his grisly trail of death spanning nearly three decades has gone undetected. Each crime scene reminds Nina of the ghostly Latin folktale of La Llorona, which terrified her when she was an abandoned and vulnerable child. Now it’s back to haunt her.
Nina has known evil, but these macabre reenactments are as disturbing as they are baffling. Now she must uncover the meaning behind the rituals as the evidence leads her in an unexpected direction—far closer to home than anyone could have imagined. As the team narrows in on a suspect, the present collides with Nina’s past in a twist of fate that forces her to make the ultimate sacrifice.
A Different Dawn is the second installment in author Isabella Maldonado's Nina Guerrera series. Following the explosive events of The Cipher, FBI Special Agent Nina Guerrera returns with her newly formed Behavioral Analysis Unit team to tackle a chilling case: a serial killer who has evaded detection for nearly three decades, striking with methodical precision every four years on Leap Day. The novel kicks off with a brutal murder in Phoenix—a family slaughtered in their sleep, staged to look like a murder-suicide.
When Nina and her team uncover a connection to a similar crime from four years prior, thousands of miles away, they realize they’re dealing with a cunning predator whose pattern has gone unnoticed for too long. The investigation takes them across decades and crime scenes, each one echoing the haunting Latin folktale of La Llorona, a spectral figure from Nina’s childhood that now resurfaces to torment her present. This cultural touchstone adds a unique layer to the narrative, intertwining Nina’s personal history with the case in an organic and emotionally resonant way.
Maldonado excels at ratcheting up the tension, keeping readers on edge as the team pieces together the killer’s ritualistic signature. The plot is a rollercoaster of twists—some predictable, others jaw-dropping—but the character development truly shines. Nina, the “Warrior Girl,” is a compelling heroine: tough yet vulnerable, shaped by a traumatic past that this case forces her to confront head-on. Her interactions with her team—cyber-expert Breck, ex-SEAL Kent, mentor Wade, and supervisor Buxton—reveal a growing dynamic that promises even more depth in future books.
Where A Different Dawn stands out is in its pacing and authenticity. Maldonado’s law enforcement background shines through in the procedural details—ViCAP databases, forensic analysis, and inter-agency dynamics are woven seamlessly, never feeling like jargon for jargon’s sake. That said, the book isn’t flawless. A few plot points stretch believability (a million-to-one twist near the end might raise eyebrows), and readers new to the series may feel slightly adrift without the context of The Cipher. This isn’t a standalone—Nina’s backstory is critical to the emotional payoff here.
Still, these are minor quibbles in an otherwise stellar thriller. A Different Dawn is a heart-pounding journey that balances relentless suspense with poignant character moments. Fans of Criminal Minds or Lisa Gardner’s gritty procedurals will find plenty to love, and Nina Guerrera emerges as a heroine worth rooting for. Maldonado has hit her stride with this series, and I’m already eager to finish it since the author tends to write three books before moving on to something new.
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