Who did you suspect of carrying out the murders? Were you surprised at the identity of the guilty party?
Yes, I was surprised at the identity of the killer and thought it was a weaker point of the book. It just didn’t make much sense to me. Not sure who else could have been the killer, but I would have chosen someone else.
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I was completely surprised at the identity of the killer. There was no foreshadowing or clues that it would be the FBI agent. There was also no reasoning or explanation as to why he would continue on with the Father’s work, and imitate his methodology, so it was just stuck on there at the end. I guess he just became fascinated with her dad and decided to become a murderer? At one point I did suspect the boyfriend, Nick. I never thought it was Anna that was the murderer.
The FBI agent was one of my three prime suspects (Nick and Anna herself being the other two). The things that led me to suspect him were that first, he had visited the original Forest Killer in prison, and second, the fact that dogs didn’t like him.
I was surprised that he was the klller. I never thought that it was Anna. Oddly enough I was just into everything that was happening and did not really think about who the killer might be. But towards the end I thought it might be her therapist.
After all the hype about the Lyssa variant, it seemed strange that the actual killer wasn’t portrayed as having it.
I was surprised to learn the identity of the suspect. I thought the suspect would end up being a hero in this story.
I suspected Agent Parkes once he started showing up when the murders started appearing again and added him to my very short list of sspects. Nick was also a thought but the evidence appeared too circumstantial. As for the psychiatrist, she came across as a deliberate red herring for the reader - until she was found murdered which kind of proved that’s what she was.
I was surprised and disappointed when the killer is revealed.
I strongly suspected Nick and a couple of other characters, including Parkes. But I thought that from a literary standpoint, Parkes was the least likely and weakest choice. I agree with another reader’s observation that the explanation for Parkes’ behavior, other than he became obsessed with her father and, essentially, possessed by Veles, was one of the least successful and convincing aspects of the plot. It seemed “out of the blue” and, in fact, the detective-gone-bad or was crazy all along but somehow got into law enforcement to settle an old score twist has been used so many times that I was convinced that would not be the resolution in this book. For it to be convincing would have required more detail about Parkes’ background and what made him decide to take up the “work” of killing from her father.
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I was concerned that the killer was Nick, and was so glad he wasn’t. It was interesting how his life was connected to the killer because of his mother. I was very surprised that the killer was the FBI Agent. Why was he so fascinated by the serial killer? Why did he decide to continue the killer’s work?
Like others, I was surprised by the killer but mostly because there was not much in the book to indicate any motive for Parkes. I suspected Nick early on but figured that was just a red herring. As soon as Anna discovered her mother had two children, I thought there was a possibility for one of her half siblings to be the killer, but that may have driven the novel too far down a soap opera path that the author didn’t want to take.
The perpetrator was a complete surprise..I wish there had been a few more clues, or maybe I was too obtuse to see what was there..
I was surprised at the identity of the killer and that is a good thing! I want to be surprised as along as it does not seem to be a character that is too far from the story line.
My thoughts exactly.
I did think the killer was a copycat, but the book showed some elements that would not have been known by copycats. It made perfect sense to me that the killer turned out to be Agent Parkes. He didn’t appear suspicious, but his actions—getting close to the child, gleaning as much information as he could, getting closer and closer to the Strangler himself, finally drawing him to commit the same kind of atrocities—made sense to a certain kind of mind
in conclusion, I didn’t really suspect anyone but found Parkes to be the logical choice.
I was definitely surprised with the reveal. I didn’t want to suspect Anna herself, there were a lot of things pointing that it was her, but I’m glad it wasn’t. Parkes was not at all who I was expecting, so it did seem a little out of the blue, but at the same time couldn’t really see anybody else doing it, unless we didn’t truly know them as characters. Nick, only thought of as the killer for a small amount of time, didn’t to seem to have enough going for it to make sense. I think realistically I only saw Anna or even the original Strangler to be the new killer over anybody else.
By the last part of the book, just about everyone had been illuminated except Agent Parkes. He was the only one with extensive knowledge of the original Forrest Strangler. I wish there had been more information about his motivation to continue the legacy of Anna’s father.
I remember being surprised when Parkes first “meets” Anna and didn’t seem to recognize her. For someone who was that involved and obsessed with the case, it just didn’t make sense. That made me suspicious of him in general, but I did not have him pegged as the killer.