Review: The Broken

The Broken by Shelley Coriell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

She’d discovered each attack mirrored hers except for one thing: She survived. 

If you followed along with my updates, you'd know I was really enjoying this from the beginning. Kate who survived an attack by her brother goes on the run only to be found by Hayden, a FBI agent who is hunting the Broadcast Butcher serial killer. The first half has everyone thinking the Butcher is Kate's brother but there were secondary characters who had me side-eyeing them. The second half switched gears and has the Butcher's identity a secret again and the hunt continues. 

The first half is more focused on the mystery/suspense plot about the serial killer, we get povs from the killer that help bring a chill to the tone (in one scene, the killer uses their latest victims blood as lube to masturbate with). There's also povs from a police sergeant helping to search for the killer and a colleague rival of Kate's, along with Kate and Hayden's povs. I thought the secondary characters were great red-herrings in the beginning and helped ramp up the mystery and suspense but the second half and ending kept some going too long and then one in particular ended up feeling a tad ridiculous. 

She’d just shaken the unshakable Hayden Reed, and if she wasn’t so damned furious at him, she’d laugh. 

The romance does take more of a back seat, which I thought fit the overall structure of the story but the second half does have Hayden and Kate feeling more for each other, the bedroom scene was pretty much fade to black though. This was more of a book of friendships, Kate's friendship while being a caregiver to Smokey Joe and the Apostles, what the group of FBI agents Hayden works with are called for their talent with getting the job done in unusual ways. We get a couple glimpses of other Apostle agents and I definitely want to read their stories. This had a strong beginning but the end really overworked itself with dragging out redherrings and creating a very convoluted villain, it's probably not a good sign when your serial killer is finally identified and my first thought was "Who?" as it took me a couple seconds to remember who they were. I'm still going to search out other books in the series because the mystery was pretty intriguing there for a while. 

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