Book Review: The Serial Chemist by James J. Murray

 

Book Review

 

Basic Details:

Book Title: The Serial Chemist

Subtitle: A Detective Rosie Young/Vince Mendez Thriller Novel Book 2

Author: James J. Murray

Genre: Crime, Thriller & Mystery

Part of a series? Yes

Order in series: 2

Best read after earlier books in series? Can be read as stand-alone

Available: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54650470

 

Overall score:

I scored this book 4/5

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Short Summary of the book:

Detectives Rosie Young and Vince Mendez return in this second book in the series to investigate a series of murders and are joined by Dr Chris Parker, a child psychologist. The victims share the same characteristics, and the murder weapon of choice is also similar. Will they find the killer and bring him to justice? And what could his motive be?

What I liked about the book:

I enjoyed the book in its entirety.

What I didn’t like about the book:

I enjoyed the entire book.

My favourite bits in the book:

The psychological elements in the book and the twist at the end.

My least favourite bits in the book:

The first few chapters were not as well written as the first book in the series.

Any further books in the series? Any more planned by this author?

This is the second in a series. I also read the first book and also enjoyed that one.

What books could this be compared to and why?

This is a detective story.

Recommendation:

In summary, I would recommend this book to the following readers:

 

Children	No
Young Adult	Yes
Adult	Yes

 

If you like detective stories, this book may be the one for you.

 

I look forward to reading more books by this author.

Book Description by Author:

Emile and his brother Cecil live a calm, predictable adult existence. Everything is orderly and without disruption. Suddenly, it isn’t.

 

With the death of their mother and the loss of her guiding wisdom, Emile finds it increasingly more difficult to keep the promise he made to her moments before she died to keep his brother safe.

 

In their most challenging of cases to date, Detectives Rosie Young and partner Vince Mendez embark on a race against time to stop one of San Antonio’s most cunning murderers, a villain with a particular talent to strike and kill but leave only pristine crime scenes in his wake.

 

With the help of clinical psychologist Dr. Chris Parker, Rosie and Vince journey into the mind of a serial killer to understand exactly what type of monster roams their city targeting dads of small boys.

 

The question both detectives and Dr. Parker must answer is what emotional baggage creates a deranged mind that suddenly transitions to cunning killer and eludes the best of police forensics.

About the Author:

James has experience in both pharmaceutical manufacturing and clinical patient management. Medications and their impact on a patient’s quality of life has been his expertise. His secret passion of murder and mayhem, however, is a whole other matter. An obsession with reading murder mysteries and thrillers left him longing to weave such tales of his own. Drawing on past clinical expertise as a pharmacist and an infatuation with the lethal effects of drugs, James creates short stories and novels that will have you looking over your shoulder and suspicious of anything in your medicine cabinet. He lives with his wife and an opinionated cat in the Great Northwest.