So I wasn’t really sure about Amanda Kyle Williams Keye Street series after book one TheStranger You Seek, But I liked the book enough to move onto book two in the series Stranger in the Room. In that book, as Keye and Atlanta Police Detective Aaron Rauser chased the Wishbone Killer, and I became a fan of Keye Street. Now after reading Don’t Talk to Strangers Keye Street has joined Alex Kava’s Maggie O’Dell, Carol O’Connell‘s Kathleen Mallory and Tess Gerritsen‘s Jane Rizzoli, among my favorite female protagonists!
In book three of the series, Keye Street leaves the streets of Atlanta and her new live-in boyfriend Rauser for the rural confines of Whisper, Georgia, Sheriff Ken Meltzer of Hitchiti County in which Whisper lays, calls Keye in as a consultant on the murder of two thirteen year-old girls brutally murdered years apart, with their bodies dumped at the same location! Both girls had been kidnapped and held captive for months before being killed. Once Keye arrives in Whisper she is viewed as an outsider not only by the residents of this tight-knit community but by the fellow members of the sheriff’s department Major Tina Brolin and Detective Raymond. Sheriff Meltzer though admires Keye for more than just profiling abilities! As Keye developes her profile of the killer, as someone who stalks and plans and waits, the killer ups his game and taunts Keye and the Sheriff by snatching a third girl!! Can Keye and Meltzer save the third victim from the grizzly death that they know awaits her?
Keye Street is a very intriguing character, a brilliant profilier with the FBI, whose career imploded when Keye lost her battle with the bottle. Now as a recovering alcoholic, she heads her own detective agency, Corporate Intelligence & Investigations (CI&I) with her stoner/hacker business partner Neil Donovan and their only employee Latischa the daughter of a bail bondsman whose skips Keye chases down! Keye also acts as a consultant for the Atlanta Police Department and Detective/Friend/Lover Aaron Rauser!
This storyline in Don’t Talk to Strangers, like those in the preceding books in the series is well-developed, fast-paced, and packs a punch at the end that leaves you saying…. “Please write faster Ms. Williams!!” The Atlanta Journal Constitution says that “Keye Street is one of the most addictive new series heroines” and Tess Gerritsen writes…..
“Keye Street immediately puts herself in the TOP ECHELON of SUSPENSE HEROES. She is a brutally funny and powerful human-one of the most realistic protagonists in crime fiction that I’ve had the thrill to read”
I agree with both of those sentiments! So check out Keye Street in all three books in the series.
Bottomline: A strong 4 plus stars out of 5 for maybe the best book yet in this series. While all three books can be enjoyed separately, my recommendation is to start at beginning to get to know Keye Street, Aaron Rauser and the crew!
Book 3 for 2015 and Book 3 in the 2015 Cloak and Dagger Reading Challenge!!
