The Chosen Ones by Carol Wyer (DI Robyn Carter #5)

I'm a little miffed because the synopsis on the book information page is so misleading and I've found this to be a disturbing trend. I often wonder if the person who writes the descriptions has any true knowledge what the book is about.

This is the 5th in series that features DI Robyn Carter and her team out of Stafford. The investigation involves the murders of 3 different people connected to the nearby town of Coltron. Jordan Kilby, age 23, is found strung up like a scarecrow in a local farmer's field. Owen Falcon is a football buddy of Jordan's and he's found dead in his garage, the victim of a gruesome murder. The final death is Dr. Lucy Harding, a GP just starting out at the local clinic. How are these 3 linked? Who is killing them in such particularly savage ways and why? The investigation sort of plods along as Robyn, Mitz, Anna and David try to figure out if there is a message in the murders. There are many additional characters to keep track of and plenty of red herrings but most readers will figure out the "who" quickly but the "why" takes a bit longer for the reveal.

I liked this well enough but it was sort of slow. There was a narrative written in italics that hinted at the genesis of the motives for the killings, or at least an attempt to explain the psychopathology involved in the making of the murderer. This was not particularly suspenseful and not a thriller per se, mostly a standard police procedural. Again, Robyn's personal life is tangentially addressed with no resolution there either -- and this has gone on for several of the books in series. It's getting old. I just wonder why female detectives can't have normal, healthy, and dare I say it -- somewhat happy -- lives and families?

Will I read a #6? Probably, because now I'm a little invested in these people so I hope that none of the characters go the way of other stories in this genre and get killed off willy nilly. Anyway, in this outing, and this is not a spoiler, Robyn and her team catch the killer and tie up the loose ends as expected.

Thank you to Bookouture and NetGalley for this e-book ARC to read and review.