A thriller that made me look forward to my commute.
I listened to The Pike as an audiobook, and it quickly became my daily commuting companion. The story wastes absolutely no time getting started. The first chapter drops a murder on the table and the investigation takes off running from there.
The pacing kept things moving nicely, but what really pulled me in were the characters. DCI Walker and Briggs make a great investigative team, and by the end of the book I found myself wanting to know more about their history. Any time I finish a mystery thinking “I should probably go back and read the first book in the series,” I consider that a win for the author.
The audiobook narration was excellent, too. The narrator managed to bring just enough personality to the characters without turning the whole thing into a performance piece. At one point my internal creep detector started quietly pinging about a certain character. I briefly suspected something… then talked myself out of it.
There’s also a moment involving a piece of technology that made me stop and think, “Wait… maybe those voices aren’t entirely imaginary.” That little twist added an extra layer of psychological tension to the story.
I ended up giving this one four out of five stars. I didn’t cancel plans or lose sleep over it, but it was a good, solid read with engaging characters and enough psychological mind games to keep things interesting. I liked it enough that I’ve already added the first book in the series, The Icehouse, to my TBR list because now I want the backstory on these characters.
And honestly, any thriller that makes you look forward to traffic is doing something right.
