Jess Lourey is a very good writer when it comes to crime thrillers with the element of surprise because nothing is ever as it seems in her books so don’t let yourself be fooled if you think you’ve figured it all out because almost always there will be that one little surprise left near the end.

I had the pleasure of ARC reading her newest crime thriller that will be released in August and would be the perfect vacation read. Her newest novel will be called ‘The Crying Killer’ and involves *shocker* a serial killer. The story was very intriguing and I’ll do a small review below on how the story goes without giving anything huge away, obviously. There was something that bugged me and that was the switching between the before and after it was so frequent, that switch that I had to give this book my full attention. I’m not going to switch between those in the review, I’ll just do a part about the before and a part about the after. Okay? Let’s go *insert meme*

The before;

Tuesday and Trixie are sisters living in a trailer and have been fending for themselves for a while. Their mother has been in and out of a psych ward due to schizophrenia albeit it not being properly diagnosed in the early stages of the girls’ lives, that why mom always came back. Their father Daryl had his good things but when the kids got older, they saw their father for what he was; an alcoholic and an abuser so when he announced that he’ll be leaving for good, the girls didn’t stop him one second and away he stayed. With their mom frequently away, they made the disability check they received in name of their mother stretch to the limit, living on the bare necessity’s while still looked cared for.

They have been hanging out with Nick for years and he’s always over at their place to hang, calling themselves the three musketeers but when Trixie got a boyfriend that changed, Arsen came in their lives and it is the worst thing that could’ve happened. She eventually broke up with Arsen but not before she got knocked up.

A killer has been on the loose and after each kill, he calls a radio station, sobbing about what he’d done and where to find the victims. He left them sprawled out looking like an X, with an X carved in their backs as well. Arsen moved away without knowing he would be becoming a dad and that’ll stay that way. Having made a plan to use Tuesday’s identity because she was legally an adult so CPS wouldn’t get involved but after the girl was born, they didn’t have a lot of days living on that pink cloud. Somehow Arsen found out and shot Trixie and then the police shot him.

[end of story, right?]

The after;

Tuesday has been taking care of Julia for years, having found a nice house that she somewhat shares with her landlady (duplex style). Her landlady but also her friend Corretta, she has been babysitting Julia since she was small so Tuesday could go to college so she could make a better live for her and Julia. Having been with the police for a short while and that not ending well, a retired detective gave her a job as a PI at his firm.

Corn has been her boss but also some type of father figure, babysitting Julia once a week so Tuesday can attend AA but also the fact that he got her job security was a big win; whilst Tuesday has been lying low since the day her sister died, she found out recently that Corn has her featured in a magazine and with that her anonymity is gone.

The killing starts again, with the same MO as before, but how? Arsen is supposed to be dead, at least that’s what everybody believes but she has her questions about it since they didn’t do DNA testing. His face was blown off so, how could they know for sure? That’s when this whole can of worms is opened yet again and Tuesday has been fearing for her live as much as Julia’s. What if Arsen knows about his daughter and is coming for her?

Giving it ⭐⭐⭐⭐ stars because the story was very good only the amount of back and forth between the past and present was a bit much for me.