Review: Leave the Lights On (True Crime Junkies #5) by Christy Barritt

About the Book

First the lights go out . . . then they die.

The body count is rising. Six murder victims. The only connection? An X carved into the dead person’s chest. When the family of one of the victims asks the Artic Circle Murder Club to investigate, the team dives into their toughest case yet.

Stopping the murders isn’t the team’s only challenge. When Duke McAllister sees his teammate Andi Slade dodging the cops, he knows she must be in deep trouble. But Andi isn’t the only one on her team on thin ice. Trouble seems to be following them all.

With more murders making the headlines, the threat level reaches an all-time high. The end game has begun. The clock is ticking, and disaster looms near. Will they stop the killer before the deadly grand finale? Or will the lights go out one final time?

Amazon / Goodreads

MY THOUGHTS

This was another exciting and hard-to-put down book by Christy Barritt. This whole series has been great, but this is the most suspense-filled and fast-paced one of the bunch. At one point, I could hardly catch my breath; the danger was imminent, and I didn’t know how they were going to get out of the situation unscathed.

The Arctic Circle Murder Club is called in to help solve a perplexing case in Anchorage. Seven people have been murdered in the past twelve days. One of the only things they have to go on is the fact that the killer cuts the power to the victim’s house before killing them. The victims don’t seem to have anything in common. They’re all from different social standings. They're of different ages and ethnicities. What’s the connection? What’s driving the killer to commit these murders? The Lights Out Killer had the whole town on edge and living in fear, and that fear seeped through the pages and kept my anxiety high.

This series is perfect for anyone who enjoys a fast-paced, character-driven thriller. While this book could technically be a standalone, I’d still recommend starting with book one. There’s a lot of history between these characters, and some ongoing mysteries from the beginning play a big part here. There’s quite a bit of development in one of those mysteries. There’s still some questions, but I was happy about the progress. And while I wouldn’t classify the ending as a cliffhanger per se, I’m very eager to see where things go with the Arctic Circle Murder Club next.

FOUR STARS