Thicker than Blood (Zoe Bentley Mystery #3)
By: Mike Omer
Website: http://strangerealm.com/mikeomer/
Release Date: June 23rd, 2020
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Series: Zoe Bentley Mystery
Received From: NetGalley
(All reviews are our own, honest opinions.)
Rating:

Funny story, I received the ARC from NetGalley and I read it before the book released. In my head I thought about how to phrase my review and was ready to write it. Then, I just never wrote said review. So here we are, reading a long overdue review for a great book!

I’ll say that I’m mad at myself because as I read through my ARC Kindle copy I wrote out notes and highlighted my favorite passages. And then, when my phone storage got so full (and having believed I wrote this review already) I deleted my copy of the file with my notes. SO, going off of my memory here let’s begin.

I have grown attached to Zoe Bentley and the cast of characters in this series. So when we see Zoe and Tatum back in Chicago, hunting for what appears to be a vampiric killer (it looks like the killer is drinking blood) there is a lot of stomach turning chaos going on. Some things about the crime fit Rod Glover but the blood drinking definitely doesn’t fit. Zoe and Tatum are determined to track Glover down and we see that, while they were right sometimes in this book, other times they had way too much tunnel vision going on.

For Zoe we see how finishing this case and finally catching Glover are all consuming and will determine her next move in her life, both personally and professionally. The same goes for Tatum and many of the other characters in the series.

I will tell you the entire time I was reading this book I was freaked out at the thought of a diabolical team hunting women in the Chicago area. As we’ve seen in other books of the series we do get glimpses into the antagonist’s process and mind and for me those parts required breaks. Talking about blood, sacrifice and the using up and disposal of victims was so unsettling for me but it is an example of how effective Omer is when writing these books.

I have to say it seems like this is the end of the series and while I’m sad about that I will say this definitely seemed like the perfect book to wrap things up on. I didn’t feel as though my questions weren’t answered or information wasn’t completed. I was happy with how the book ended and where I could see the characters going so, for me, this is a well done trilogy. If book four comes out, I’ll come back just as quickly.