An Amazon Charts bestseller.
To a cunning serial killer, she was the one that got away. Until now… eleven years ago is watching. Determined to reclaim his lost prize, he commits a grisly murder designed to pull her into the investigation…but his games are just beginning. And he’s using the internet to invite the public to play along.
His coded riddles may have made him a depraved social media superstar—an enigmatic cyber-ghost dubbed “the Cipher”—but to Nina he’s a monster who preys on the vulnerable. Partnered with the FBI’s preeminent mind hunter, Dr. Jeffrey Wade, who is haunted by his own past, Nina tracks the predator across the country. Clue by clue, victim by victim, Nina races to stop a deadly killer while the world watches.
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THE CIPHER by Isabella Maldonado is the first book in the Nina Guerrera series. It’s the heart-pounding, page turning story of FBI Special Agent Nina Guerrera. She escaped a killer’s trap 11 years ago. The abductor had never been caught. Will he coming back after her?
Determined not to let her past set a precedent over her life, Nina is legally declared an adult and had her name changed at the age of 17 – after the attack. Her life had never been an easy one. As an infant, she was found in a dumpster, thrown away like so much thrash. While being moved from one homes to another in the foster system, she was abused and neglected. After surviving the abduction and being declared an adult, she then fights against prejudice and hardships to get an education and for the right to pursue the occupation she wants – to be on the police force. Once she succeeds, she works her way up the ladder earning the respect of both those she works with and any that knows her.
During an early morning jog, because of her petite statue, Nina is thought of as easy prey by two men aiming to rape her while videoing their vile actions just off the park’s jogging pathway. Little did they know that Nina was like dynamite – a small package that carries quite an explosion. They were no match for Officer Guerrera. After a fight, Nina arresting her attacker and his buddy running the video ran off. The other man was arrested after his partner turned on him. The video of the attack had been live streamed showing Nina fighting her attackers. After the theme song of Wonder Woman had been added, it went viral declaring her the Warrior Girl. That’s when her terror from the past came back to haunt her again. When the abductor saw it, he was able to find out her new identity, where she worked and eventually where she lived.
Elaborate clues left at murder scenes, bring all the horror of so many years ago back to forefront of Nina’s memory when she realized they were committed by the same man – the man that had abducted her 11 years ago. This time the crazed criminal is going public making the clues and the victims all part of his sick game getting the public to try solve his riddles and move on to the next level before the police do. The crazed social media named him “The CIPHER”. Then to add insult to injury, someone starts offering a large reward for anyone that can prove who the Cipher really is just adding to his sick sense of importance.
Can they track down the clues while jetting across the country and get a step ahead of murderer in order to catch him? Or will he elude them and strike again? Can they crack the codes fast enough to save someone else form dying? How many girls will die in his “game”? Will he finally get his “prize” back? Can Nina risk getting catch by this vile monster again? Will Nina find that the one man that use to oppose her being on the force to be the one that has her back?
THE CIPHER is a fast paced, edge of your seat novel that will have you turning pages as you grit your teeth in frustration or feel the fear for Nina’s safety or the girl’s this criminal has he’s aim set on. You know going in that this is going to be an amazingly accurate book from the author’s background. Having worked over 20 years in law enforcement including hostage negotiator and dealing with special investigations and forensics first hand, you know that Isabella Maddonado is writing from experience. She does an amazing job of writing a true to life story without making it a blood and gore graphic novel. Which to me personally, made the book an exciting and true to life book that I very much enjoyed reading. Most definitely recommend THE CIPHER to anyone that loves a criminal mystery, an exciting page-turner, or a well-crafted story that has you taking a big gasp of air at the end when you realize you have been holding your breath.
Wow! A riveting tale in the hands of a superb storyteller.
The Cipher by Isabella Maldonado
Nina Guerrera #1
Drew me in from the first page and kept my interest. It was a great introduction to a new series I look forward to reading more of in the future.
What I liked:
* Nina: small but mighty, survivor, warrior, bright, damaged but not broken, an asset, intriguing – I liked her and want to hear more about her in the future.
* The core team she worked with – three people I look forward to finding out more about
* The police procedural parts
* The writing, plot and pacing
* That the bad guy was taken down…eventually
* Knowing that there will be another book in this series to read in the future
* The puzzle pieces coming together slowly – though at times it felt a bit too slow as I wanted to move ahead and find out what would happen
What I didn’t like:
* Odin – the serial killer…creepy person that deserved to be put down like a rabid beast
* Being reminded that this could happen even though I would rather think it doesn’t
* Having to wait for the next book in the series.
Thank you to NetGally and Thomas & Mercer for the ARC – This is my honest review.
4 Stars
The Cipher by Isabella Maldonado, is the first in her new Nina Guerra series.
My Amazon First Reads selection for October, The Cipher, was a fabulous, fast, and thrilling read. Nina is a seemingly emotionless, hard FBI agent who is interested in getting the job done. She has a softer center and is compelled to camouflage it because she was attacked by a serial killer as a teenager. Her tormentor rediscovers Nina through a fluke cell phone video. Supporting characters are a mix of sweet, motherly neighbors and of fellow agents who are strong personalities with snarky humor. I loved this book and am eagerly waiting for the next in this series.
A heart-pounding novel from page one, The Cipher checks all the boxes for a top-notch thriller: sharp plotting, big stakes, and characters—good and bad and everywhere in between—that are so richly drawn you’ll swear you’ve met them. I read this in one sitting and I guarantee you will too. Oh, another promise: You’ll absolutely love the Warrior Girl!
THE CIPHER launches the turbocharged, take-no-prisoners Nina Guerrera series and catapults it right out of the stratosphere! I cheered for the resilient female protagonist who knows how to stand her blood-soaked ground. Riveting!
A gritty story, well-written with plenty of suspense. I did have some nagging doubts about the central character, Nina Guerrera, not least would she have been allowed such an active role in the case given the circumstances. There was something else that stopped her from being totally believable but I can’t work out what it was.
Overall, a good read and I will try another by this author in the future.
Nina is such a great character!!!
Taut & twisted, but couldn’t put it down
This was an excellent book. I don’t usually give 5* but this deserved it. While the action was not all guns and car chases it was constant motion. No watching the paint dry.
The Cipher is one of the best thrillers I have read this year. Can I just gush a little bit about how much I love Nina Guerrera’s character? Tough as nails and an extremely compelling character, Nina survived an abusive foster situation to only be kidnapped by a sadist and tortured. She then escaped the bad guy sought emancipation and reinvented herself with a new last name. Formerly Nina Esperanza which literally means hope girl, Nina chose Guerrera for a new name meaning warrior girl. Young girls are being murdered and the case links back to Nina’s abduction. A police officer now consulting for the FBI, Nina takes on her past as the world gets a front row seat to her torture to take on a killer and storm into danger. High intensity and pulse pounding suspense leaves you on the edge of your seat for a page turner that will leave you breathless. My voluntary, unbiased review is based upon a review copy from Netgalley.
Loved it!
I enjoyed this twisted, fast-paced crime mystery. I loved the main character, warrior girl Nina! She embodies the word survivor and won’t stop until they stop the bad guy, her former abductor. Despite all that has happened to her, she manages to maintain a kind heart.
For those interested in the audiobook, the narrator, Roxanne Hernandez, has a sweet, young-sounding voice which isn’t a great match for tough Nina who survived abusive foster homes and is a survivor of a violent crime. I was able to put that aside and thoroughly enjoy this book!
***** AUDIOBOOK REVIEW *****
The Cipher by Isabella Maldonado was so good! I went through the entire audiobook thinking this was a debut author… not because it was written like a first novel but because surely, I would have heard of this fabulous author if she had written more books, right?! Wrong! She has a few others under her belt… which means, you guessed, I have some backlog to read! Maldonado really captured me. Her writing was clean and crisp, there was no long-winded extras. I really like that in a book that is a mix of police procedural and the FBI profiler type of books. This was spot on and I couldn’t listen fast enough.
Nina Guerrera was a great female heroine in my opinion. I do love me a strong, fierce woman especially when she’s had some tragedy in her life before. However, Nina’s tragedy was brough out to the forefront and right in front of her colleagues, her mostly male-dominated colleagues. I feel like the way the characters/author addressed social media was great. Adding in a serial killer who’s tormenting his victim and the police via social media is a great nod at what is common in our world. It was a great addition.
I do believe this is the first time I’ve listened to the narrator, Roxanne Hernandez. I enjoyed her especially her being true to Nina’s Latina heritage. It was brought up throughout but really just made her seem more human. More than that, I felt like Hernandez was really able to separate her characters and not give everyone that Latin feel. I appreciate that immensely especially since one of the other main characters was a middle-aged man that was a revered FBI psychologist. I would definitely listen to this narrator again with a smile on my face!
Thank you Brilliance Publishing for the complimentary copy of this audiobook with the hope that I would leave an Unbiased Opinion. I was not required to leave a review, positive or otherwise, and my opinions are just that… my opinions.
A 16 year old female run away from a foster home is kidnapped tortured and raped by a sadistic perpetrator. She escapes, but her attacker is never found. She tries to put the horrible crime behind her, changes her name, and eventually goes on to become a police officer and later an FBI agent. She is attacked while jogging one evening, but she is able to subdue her attacker. A second culprit in the attack posts a video of the attack and the story goes viral. The publicity catches the attention of her attacker from long ago and he resurfaces with taunts, threats and riddles directed at the FBI agent and the subsequent murders of several young females bearing a strong resemblance to the FBI agent. The FBI presses hard to catch the culprit, but he slips through their fingers several times before the ultimate climax. This story had a gritty subject matter with overdone female victimization which seems to be in vogue today. The author had first hand experience in the FBI and was able to weave interesting details into the story. I thought the writing was good and the story moved at a good pace. Modern crime fighting techniques like genealogy to help identify the unknown suspect and to build an image were incorporated into the story. The story itself had some glaring weaknesses that seemed to artificially place the main female character at peril. She was the known prime target of a sadistic serial killer. The FBI channeled a huge amount of resources to catch the culprit, yet the main character was not put under 24 hour protection or even surveillance. The main character also seemed to have missed the lecture on “stranger danger” and placed herself in harms way.
*WARNING* this has some pretty graphic scenes and explains a pretty terrible rape. Reader beware
I think what The Cipher did was disgusting and horrific. Some of the death scenes made my stomach turn. Getting beyond the gore, the story had me fully invested. The determination of Nina was awe inspiring. The story had many twists. I didn’t guess who Cipher was either! So, the ending was a nice surprise as to who Cipher was.
Intense, harrowing, and instantly addictive, The Cipher took my breath away. Isabella Maldonado has created an unforgettable heroine in Nina Guerrera, a dedicated FBI agent and trauma survivor with unique insight into the mind of a predator. This riveting story is everything a thriller should be.