** spoiler alert ** This book, is the second book in the series but it's not necessary to read the first book to read this one. There are a couple of complaints that I have about this book. The first is that the killer is not really developed on the good side (as he's head of the search and rescue). There are only a handful of scenes where he interacts with Kelly and that's it. The second is that some of the torture scenes are just horrific and this is coming from somebody who has read lots of horror, war crimes, and genocide things.