She’s hunting. He’s watching.Special Agent Macy Crow is a survivor. After a vicious hit-and-run nearly kills her, she gets right back to work, and now she’s gunning for a spot on the FBI’s elite profiling team. As an audition, she offers to investigate the recently discovered bones of Tobi Turner, a high school girl who disappeared fifteen years ago.While investigating with local sheriff Mike … with local sheriff Mike Nevada, a former colleague and onetime lover, Macy discovers a link between Tobi’s case and several others that occurred around the same time as her disappearance. As Macy interviews victims and examines old cases, she uncovers a sinister picture of a stalker who graduated to sexual assault—and then murder.
Macy and Nevada race to put this monster behind bars before he can come out of hiding. But the murderer’s had years to hone his skills, and soon Macy herself becomes a target. She’s no stranger to pain and terror, but will Macy’s first profiling case be her last?
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HIDE AND SEEK (Criminal Profiler #1) by Mary Burton is a romantic suspense with a stronger emphasis on the suspense/thriller plot line than the romance. The two main characters have been involved in the past, both professionally and romantically, which allows the author to amp up the suspense without the reader feeling cheated on the romance. This is a new series, but there is overlapping of characters from Ms. Burton’s previous books.
FBI Special Agent Macy Crow has an innate ability to connect seemingly unconnected pieces of a crime together to solve big cases. She is attempting to get on the FBI’s elite profiling team so she can get back out into the field. After being almost killed by a hit-and-run tied to her last case in Texas, she knows she is not yet one-hundred percent, but she is tired of sitting behind a desk.
Mike Nevada has returned home after resigning from the FBI. He was a profiler and had had enough of the death and depravity. He is elected sheriff after discovering multiple rape kits that the current sheriff purposely never had processed. When the bones and backpack of a fifteen-year-old missing person case of a high school girl are discovered, Mike requests Macy’s assistance on the case.
Macy and Nevada work together as seamlessly as before, but they are up against a killer who has evolved and honed his skills over many years. In 2004, he started with rapes and then worked his way up to kidnapping and murder. He is bold enough to have left his DNA at every scene and he is still free. He is watching as Macy starts to put the pieces together and he has decided she needs to be stopped – permanently.
I read this book in one sitting. The investigation was so intriguing and the killer so depraved that I just had to find out who the killer was. The climax had me on the edge of my seat. Macy and Nevada are a great couple who each understand what drives the other. Macy is extremely strong and resilient and yet vulnerable due to her physical changes since the accident. Nevada is strong, smart and the perfect man to support Macy. The sex scenes are not too explicit or long. All of the secondary characters are fully fleshed out and I will be looking forward to following them in future books, too.
I can highly recommend this book and I will be waiting anxiously for the next book in this series!
Darkly intriguing, incredibly menacing, and briskly paced! Hide and Seek is a fast-paced mystery with a wonderfully twist & turn plot that keeps the reader guessing almost until the very end. The two central characters are likeable and well-defined, and there’s a fairly large secondary cast, all of whom have important parts to play. I highly recommend Hide and Seek, it will satisfy any fan of romantic suspense.
Very suspenseful! If you like the genre you should be reading Mary Burton.
Hide and Seek by Mary Burton
Criminal Profiler #1
As I started to read this book I had a feeling I had met Macy Crow before and yes, I had. She was in the book Cut and Run and in my review I hoped Macy would get a book of her own…and this was a perfect book for her to star in AND it seems she will be having more books in the future. I am now hoping that she and Mike Nevada will find a way to continue their relationship in the upcoming series.
This book has Macy back on the job after a horrific hit and run accident that nearly killed her. She has been working a desk job but is eager to get back in the field so when given five days to try to tie up a case she is eager to get back in the saddle. The local sheriff happens to be a man she was in a short relationship before and they reconnect but there reconnection is not the main part of this book. No, this is the story of the search for a serial rapist and murderer and how Macy and Mike go about finally smoking him out.
What I liked:
* Macy’s strength – physical and mental
* Mike’s willingness to let Macy work but also his wanting to help her if/when he can
* The way the story is slowly revealed
* The calls from Macy’s twin sister
* The scritch scratching dreams Macy had – a bit of the paranormal creeping in
* The way Mike and Macy reevaluate what is important in life
* And a lot more!
What I did not like:
* Ex-sheriff Green and what he didn’t do that he should have done
* The bad guy(s) – totally unlikable – just as they were meant to be
* The fact that good people end up dead – but – if they didn’t die we wouldn’t have great romantic suspense novels to read so…am just glad they are fictitious characters biting the dust.
I am definitely eager to read more in this series and can’t wait for book two to come out!
Thank you to NetGalley and Montlake Romance for the ARC – This is my honest review.
5 Stars
There is no doubt that Mary Burton knows how to build an eerie, scary, riveting murder mystery thriller that will give you the chills, that will scare you to check your locks and windows, and under your bed, because that boogieman does not only belong to the childhood nightmares anymore…
The constant twists, that each intensifies the investigation, caused me to be clued into the book. The case is grisly and the smalltown aspect where everyone knows everyone, the killer lurking right around the corner, just makes it even more frightening and intimidating.
Part of the story is told from the culprit’s point of view part from the victims pov, and part from the investigators pov. Like I have said many times, that multiple points of views can make a mystery horrendously gruesome. And when the crimes are violence against women, including detailed rape scenes, that definitely can be too much for some readers, even if they are not normally triggered by that kind of scenes, cause there was a time in the story that I felt uncomfortable, to my bones.
The story has some physical attraction elements to represent romance, and for personally, it wasn’t quite enough. The former lovers meet again in this investigation, and the attraction and lust are still there. Special Agent Macy Crow and sheriff Mike Nevada do care for each other, I would say Mike more so than Macy, and they act on their attraction towards each other, but two sex scenes does not a romance make… I wish this wouldn’t be categorized as a romantic suspense but a thriller (with some romantic elements).
Their teamwork was flawless, they appreciate and respect each other as law enforcement agents, and they are comfortable with each other, in all the different kind of situations the investigation brings on them. I liked both of them, I admired them, they had guts, they were humble, honest, hardworking people, stubborn to get to the truth, putting the case as a number one priority in their lives.
All the local people that were introduced, as well as the team members that walked through the scenes of the story, were intriguing and interesting characters, well contributing to the tale and to the many turns in the pulsating plot.
A suspense-mystery that kept me on the edge, a horrid thriller of a serial rapist escalating into a killer is an arresting, engrossing start to the new series. Can’t imagine the depths of fright this series will bring us. Is it weird to say – I can’t wait to be scared to death again?!
~ Four Spoons
During demolition of a barn outside Deep Run, Virginia a red backpack and human bones have been discovered. FBI Agent Macy Crow is sent to Deep Run to investigate and ends up working with former FBI Agent and now Sheriff Mike Nevada. Macy has worked with Mike before when he was still an FBI agent. They also had an affair when they worked together. Macy isn’t sure what to expect when she meets up with Mike again but she knows they work well together. As for the attraction, only time will tell.
The investigation into the murder becomes more complicated when the DNA found on the backpack links the murder to several rapes which occurred around the same time as the murder. Macy and Mike have their work cut out for them.
Hide and Seek by Mary Burton is an intense, well-thought-out romantic suspense story. The author kept me on the edge of my seat as I read this thrilling suspense story. Mary Burton is one of my favorite authors and I am looking forward to the next thrilling adventure she will take me on.
THIS REVIEW IS FOR BOTH THE AUDIOBOOK AND EBOOK VERSIONS
Really awesome story, I enjoyed the plot and the characters. Suspenseful with plenty of action scenes, emotional scenes and twists. Loved the ending and the narrator did a wonderful job with this story. I recommend this book.
Great author and a great book. I read all of her books.
A good read.
Proper thriller with all the elements.
The protagonist and the hero are also etched as believable characters. Definitely going back for more in this series
This book is full of suspense, steamy romance and adventure. This author puts together characters and scenes together beautifully. Looking forward to her next one
I don’t think it’s actually possible for Mary Burton to write a book that I don’t love.
Hide and Seek was no exception.
I loved the fast pace plot, that held just the right amount of twists and turns that keep me up reading well past my bedtime. Great characters (main and secondary), great setting, dialogue and narrative. And now, I’m ready to binge read nothing but Mary Burton (this happens every time when I read this author).
I have been reading Mary Burton for years and I think this is one of the BEST!! Love the characters … loved the story. So excited for this new series.
Thank you #netgalley and #montlakeromance for the eARC.
4.5
Book source ~ NetGalley
Sheriff Mike Nevada used to be on the FBI’s elite profiling team, but after a case in his home town he gets pissed off at the local sheriff’s mismanagement of evidence, so he leaves the team and runs for Sheriff. And wins. When the body of Tobi Turner is discovered 15 yrs after she disappeared, Nevada manages to get Special Agent Macy Crow assigned to the case. Macy barely survived a hit-n-run accident in Texas on her last case, but she’s back to work and really wants on the team. This is her shot. She has a week to get solid evidence leading to a suspect, or better yet catch the guy, and then they’ll talk about her joining the team.
This story is wow. It doesn’t hit a reader over the head and drag them off. It whispers sweet words and romances the reader with great characters, a well-defined world, a creepy bad guy, and so much more. Before you know it, you’re in love and will follow this story to the ends of the Earth. I feel the ending was a touch rushed otherwise I love it. It reminds me of Criminal Minds, a show I love, so if you enjoy those types of shows then this book is right up your dark alley. I am most definitely looking forward to more books in this series.
Mary Burton has not written a book that I didn’t thoroughly enjoy…this one is no exception.
Really got caught up in this storyline, the characters are well developed, I could see Macy & Nevada working as a couple solving crimes. Christina Traister did a good job bringing these characters to life.
This was a fast read because it was very entertaining – good character building, informative, keeping your interest. Loved it!
This is my first Mary Burton book — but will not be my last. Special Agent Macy Crow, who is auditioning for an FBT profiling job is sent to investigate an older case involving bones recently uncovered during a barn teardown. The bones lead Macy, and the local Sheriff (who also happens to be her former lover) on a chase that uncovers linkages to several past and present rapes. The excitement mounts as we get closer to uncovering the culprit. I found it an exciting read, although I guessed The Who dunnit well before the end of the book. The main characters are likeable, and I’ve already ordered my next Mary Burton book — the ultimate compliment. (
Great suspenseful thriller
Mary never fails to impress!
This is the second book I’ve read by Mary Burton, oddly enough, the first book of hers I read was Cut and Run, which introduced the lead character, FBI profiler, Macy Crow, yet this novel is the first novel in the author’s Criminal Profiler series. Sadly, I liked this novel somewhat less than the first for several reasons, and I am giving it a 2.5-star rating.
First of all, this novel was billed as romantic suspense, but it is more a suspense novel/police procedural than it is a romance–what little romance there was between Special Agent Macy Crow, and town sheriff, Mike Nevada, amounted to two rather perfunctory and unimaginative sex scenes, neither of which was romantic, it was more a case of these two characters having had a sex before but it’s been a while, so let’s both scratch that itch. Rather disappointing.
It Cut and Run, Macy was in a serious car accident and is still recovering in this novel. She’s trying to prove to her superiors at the FBI that she can still do the job, and her first case, a hunt for an apparent rapist/serial killer takes her to Deep Run, Virginia, at the request of the new sheriff in town–her old partner/flame, Mike Nevada. While it’s helpful to know that these two had a prior relationship, the novel works just fine as a standalone.
The novel opens with a sadistic rape/murder in progress in the prologue, and she’s not the first girl to go missing or be raped in this small town. Macy is assigned to the case when the bones of a missing girl are found inside an old barn which is being taken down and dismantled for the weathered barn wood. Once the bones are identified as belonging to Tobi Turner, who has been missing for 15 years, and when Sheriff Nevada is made aware that his predecessor, Sheriff Greene, had never had the rape kits of other rape victims sent out for DNA analysis, Nevada sends them out, and the results reveal that three of those cold cases contained DNA matching that of what was found on Ms. Turner’s backpack and, the hunt is on for a rapist turned serial strangler.
Told in alternating narration, we also get to see inside the mind of the sadistic killer, who is actively pursuing prospective new victims, and of course, like all good armchair detectives, we are given plenty of suspects to sift through in this whodunit, and as they’re investigating, more victims go missing, and thanks to Macy’s FBI connections, more victims are being identified in other nearby states–the rapist/strangler has been busy. As a police procedural this novel works far better than it does as a romantic suspense novel, and although I found the first half of the novel a somewhat slow read, I did like the ongoing suspense and the chance to try to guess the identity of the killer.
While I did notice some procedural errors during the investigation, since I voluntarily requested an advance reader copy of this novel, I am sure that many of these errors were probably caught and corrected during the editing process. While I liked the mystery and suspense part of this novel, and while we do get somewhat of an understanding of what Macy Crow has been through, we don’t really get any insight into the head and heart of Mike Nevada, and although I kept waiting for more than just a surface look at him, his thoughts and feelings, it simply wasn’t present, which left me feeling rather cheated, especially when he’s repeatedly asked why, when he started out in a big city, did he choose to return to policing a small town, and can only say, “it felt right.”
All in all, if you enjoy police procedural whodunit novels, you’ll probably enjoy this one, but especially at an emotional level, I found this novel lacking a depth of character, and also found the HEA ending far too brief, certainly not romantic and practically nonexistent for this reader.