Having read and disliked the first book in Kate Kessler’s series of Audrey Harte novels, I promptly forgot it. Some way into the second book, Two Can Play, memories of the first book came leaking back into my memory. The main improvement Kessler has made in this one is dramatically shorten the length: the audiobook is 9 hours versus 25 hours for the first. Forensic psychologist Audrey Harte returns to her home state of Maine to interview a young man who has just graduated from high school and has admitted to raping and killing several blonde young women. He is, she decides, a classic psychopath, but she is puzzled why he is so keen to boast about his rapes but is so silent about the murders. She also gets several messages from someone who is taunting her. It dawns on her that the boy didn’t commit the murders but instead was working with a killer, who is still on the loose. Then another girl goes missing and the search becomes all the more urgent.

A series devoted to murders by young people is particularly gruesome even if it is standard fare for modern crime novels. Kessler does have an ability to highlight some of the more unsavory aspects of serial killing and the media circus around them. In this case, she includes a weasely true crime writer and a pathetic fan of serial killers who thinks she can find the good in the young murderer. Given the shorter book, there is less room for subplots, but the romance with Audrey’s  old flame plays a major role in the story. The line from initial puzzle to final resolution is pretty straight and while the plot doesn’t hold together very tightly, it is distinctive. The book would be more interesting if there was more forensic psychology in it, and although Audrey struggles with her demons, she isn’t yet a very interesting lead character. But maybe there’s hope for future novels in this series to say something insightful about violence, trauma, and the modern world. A bit more humor would help too. The unabridged audiobook is again performed by Cindy Harden, who brings energy and variety to the reading.

© 2017 Christian Perring

Christian Perring lives and teaches in New York.