What is this about?
Nina Guerrera is after the man who once kidnapped her, and held her prisoner — the Cipher. And now, when he finds her again, she begins a cat-and-mouse game with him before he kills another young girl… that looks like her.
What else is this about?
This is an introduction to Nina, her past and why The Cipher is after her.
Blurb
To a cunning serial killer, she was the one that got away. Until now…
FBI Special Agent Nina Guerrera escaped a serial killer’s trap at sixteen. Years later, when she’s jumped in a Virginia park, a video of the attack goes viral. Legions of new fans are not the only ones impressed with her fighting skills. The man who abducted her 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.
The Cipher is an introduction to Nina Guerrera, an FBI agent who has worked her ass off to get where she is.
Isabella Maldonado wastes no time in introducing readers, and the world to Nina, when two idiots attack her while she’s jogging, and decide to livestream the attack, as only misogynistic idiots can be. The video goes viral, bringing her to the attention of the Cipher.
The Cipher is the man that kidnapped her 11 years prior, and assaulted her before she got away. She has no doubt that he was going to kill her, but she saved herself. In honour of that, she changed her name to Nina Guerrera, meaning Warrior Girl. This unintentionally saved her from the Cipher who lost track of her, only to find her again in a viral video.
When he does, he begins killing again — to get her attention and to taunt her — and naturally, he plays it out on the world’s social media stage to boot.
Nina is pulled into a profiler unit focused on catching him. While she makes friends there, it’s Wade, a lead profiler and the man she believes almost prevented her from being able to join the FBI.
The Cipher is as ruthless as they come, and takes pleasure in playing out his games in public, not to mention taunting Nina. But Nina used what happened to her as the foundation of a woman who takes no prisoners, and no bullshit.
She’s is a strong character, who has had no one to rely on but herself growing up. She has walls around her, especially against Wade, who she doesn’t trust.
However, as the case progresses, she and Wade, and a team of four brought together because of this case begin to get past her defences. The interplay with the characters is great, and I got wrapped up in the story pretty quickly.
Then, I don’t know. Something happened
And I still can’t figure out what; things just stopped working.
Perhaps it was the Cipher himself: this is a man who kills for the sake of killing, by there was a point where he just lost steam for me and became a caricature. There were also moments where things were happening to Nina that didn’t make sense, and felt like they were there for the sake of it. So in the end, it all just kind of lost steam for me despite the promising beginning.
I like Nina, I do — I think she’s a fantastic character, and the team and secondary characters around her make for some promising future instalments. But continuing on this series? Not sure yet.
