Some readers call this type of crime fiction “Females in Jeapardy” – aka FemJeap,” describing the nature of the crimes. Parts of the books can be extremely violent, bloody, gruesome because Methos is no different from other crime authors these days. Most of his books are horror shows, graphically describing the damage one human being can do to another.  Crimson Lake Road seems different at first, but wait about saying until you’ve turned the last page.  

Crimson Lake Road
by Victor Methos
read by Brittany Presley, 10h 58m
Rating: A- / legal thriller 
#3 in Desert Plains series 

From book #1 in this series the reader has known that the protagonist, Jessica Yardley a police investigator, was married to a serial killer who is now in prison thanks in very large part to Jessica’s efforts.  There is quite a lot about this series that is “unlikely” at best, but the story line and writing are so good I just bought into it.  Jennifer was pregnant when her husband went to prison. In this book, the child is now grown into a woman, Tara.

This time a woman is left beaten very badly and is found dead. A couple weeks later another woman is found beaten but this time she ends up in a hospital and reveals to Jessica that her attacker was her live-in boyfriend, a doctor. Jessica starts investigating and then in another week or so finds out her own daughter eesis missing. Meanwhile, lawyers,  prosecutors and defense attorneys abound because the hospitalized woman’s boyfriend was pretty easy to arrest.  (The courtroom drama is excellent with new-to-me little tidbits re procedures.) 

There are a lot of characters here and a lot of loopy-loops with the plot but I was hooked. And although the fem-jeep is pretty much at the center of the crimes- these are not graphically described.  (Whew!). 

Parts of Methos’ book are “meh,”  but quite often they are creative and funny  These are terrific reads if you can stand the occasional very graphic violence.