The Roses of May (The Collector, 2)
Four months after the explosion at the Garden, a place where young women known as the Butterflies were kept captive, FBI agents Brandon Eddison, Victor Hanoverian, and Mercedes Ramirez are still entrenched in the aftermath, helping survivors in the process of adjusting to life on the outside. With winter coming to an end, the Butterflies have longer, warmer days of healing ahead. But for the agents, the impending thaw means one gruesome thing: a chilling guarantee that somewhere in the country, another young woman will turn up dead in a church with her throat slit and her body surrounded by flowers.
Priya Sravasti's sister fell victim to the killer years ago. Now she and her mother move every few months, hoping for a new beginning. But when she ends up in the madman's crosshairs, the hunt takes on new urgency. Only with Priya's help can the killer be found--but will her desperate hope for closure compel her to put her very life on the line?
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Community Reviews
*****SPOILER ALERT*****
Priya endures an incredible amount of loss as a teenager. A serial killer takes her sister as a victim when Priya is only 12, and this younger sister finds her sister's body. A year later almost to the day, her father takes his life due to grief and his inability to accept the loss.
This "collector" only kills one victim every year in the spring, and he's very selective and careful. He's done it for 16 years in different cities and towns across the US, and the police and FBI are having trouble figuring out his pattern and connecting the dots. They don't know much about him nor how to stop him, but Priya and her mom have a plan. They know he is watching and decide to lure him in and then wait for him to act...resulting in a final showdown where Priya faces her sister's killer as he seeks to claim her as his next victim. But #17 is ready for him or is she?
This book pulled me in just as the first one did. The characters are compelling and real. I particularly enjoyed Priya's interactions with her agents - the trio of FBI agents that handled her sister's case and have maintained contact with Priya and her mother. In a way, they form a family unit just like the surviving butterflies have a sisterhood connection that never wavers.
These books are dark, too dark to be termed thrillers alone, which is why I'd call them horror thrillers. Book 2 wasn't as horrific as book 1. Book 1 focused on the capture, rape, tattooing and collection of women - all done by 1 man for over 30 years. It was traumatic in a way to just read about the events in book 1. Those mental images stayed with me long after I finished the book. Book 2 was more psychological torture rather than physical, but I think it will still haunt me. And right now, I can't decide if that is a good thing or a bad thing.
The first book is still one of my favorite books of the 2010s, but Roses of May was simply awful. I started The Summer Children with hopes it will be better, but so far looking like more of the same lame cliches and boring plot lines. Dot should really have quit while ahead.
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