The Last Victim: A Ryker Townsend Novel

Jordan Dane

Dec 2015 · Cosas Finas

About this ebook

 When a young hunting guide from a remote island in Alaska is found brutally murdered, his naked body is discovered in the Cascade Mountains outside Seattle—the shocking pinnacle to a grisly Totem of body parts. Nathan Applewhite is the fourteenth victim of a cunning serial killer who targets and stalks young men.

 

With the body count escalating, FBI profiler Ryker Townsend and his specialized team investigate the gruesome crime scene. They find no reason for Nate to have mysteriously vanished from his isolated home in Alaska before he ended up in the hands of a sadist, who has been taunting Ryker and his team in a sinister game of catch me if you can.

 

But Townsend has a secret he won’t share with anyone—not even his own team—that sets him on the trail of a ruthless psychopath, alone. The intuitive FBI profiler is plagued by recurring nightmares—seen through Nate’s dead eyes—that slowly chips away at his mental stability. Is he burning out and losing his mind—becoming unfit for duty—or is the last victim reaching out to him from the grave?

 

Townsend sees horrific flashes of memory, imprinted on the retinas of a dead man, the last image Applewhite saw when he died. Ryker must piece together the fragments. Each nightmarish clue brings him closer to a killer who knows how to hide in plain sight and will see him coming, but when the dead man has the skills of a hunting guide, he has the perfect ally to track down a killer—the last victim.

Ratings and reviews

THE FINAL VICTIM by JORDAN DANE The Totem Killer abducts young men, dismembers them, arranges them artistically and leaves them where they will be found. Arms, legs, faces are tied to a tree to make a macabre totem. All except the final victim ... this man was left whole as a gift to the investigators. Supervisory Special Agent Ryker Townsend has a unique gift ..or curse... he instinctively gets inside the killer's head. At least that is what his team thinks. In reality the dead victims appear and speak to Ryker in nightmares. He shares this information with no one. Ryker finds a link to a small village in Alaska. Ryker needs to know what the last victim was so important to the killer, hoping that will lead him to the killer. But the killer is watching Ryker .. and targets him. When Ryker suffers a horrific accident, he starts seeing the dead man while awake... is he truly having visions... or is he slowly losing his mind? The author truly has a way with words .... *A crescendo that led to the grinding of bone, the creak of a joint, and the meaty resistance of flesh against the saw. *He was like lake water.. still on the surface, but teeming with life and hope and possibility beneath. Ryker Townsend has complex layers and secrets. He is as creepy good as the killer is creepy bad. What a terrific character! The last half of this suspenseful book is tightly woven, the anxiety and apprehension increases with each page read. A solid 5 stars from me. My thanks go to the author / NetGalley / Cosas Finas Publications who furnished a digital copy in exchange for an honest, unbiased opinion.

About the author

 Bestselling, critically-acclaimed author Jordan Dane’s gritty thrillers are ripped from the headlines with vivid settings, intrigue, and dark humor. Publishers Weekly compared her intense novels to Lisa Jackson, Lisa Gardner, and Tami Hoag, naming her debut novel No One Heard her Scream as Best Books of 2008. She also pens young-adult novels for Harlequin Teen. Formerly an energy sales manager, she now writes full time. Jordan shares her Texas residence with two lucky rescue dogs.