Okay..SO wanted to give this book the five star rating it deserved as I tore through this book in days and was thoroughly entertained..however I felt the ending was flat..Back it up to the story, it begins in a sleepy, comfortable town of Lafferton, I believe it is in England but let me also preface this retelling by again stating no one does mystery better and more detailed than our English/British author friends, what rich enveloping stories they tell..Okay back to the plot in Lafferton there are several seemingly unrelated odd occurrences when a quiet, somber elderly woman, an agile mountain biker and a depressed, overweight girl disappear without a trace. The story is told in fragmented viewpoints switching (rather rudely) without warning from the victims, the detectives, outside characters and the sinister villain through a series of confession type letters to his despised mother. Okay so we have a possible great novel here and I love the back stories, the character profiles and the subplots. Like I stated earlier I hated that they switched characters and you had to reread and remain lost for a few sentences until you figured out who was speaking/thinking but it worked somehow and kept my interest..however I did not like the surprise, the climax, the "ah ha--it was him/her all along"..I thought it was weak and unsupported..also and again I realize how morbid I really can be, there were no descriptions of really what was done with the bodies..I mean they were abducted and blah blah dont want to tell too much but honestly there could have been more in depth chapters on the murdererer so that when its revealed its not so much of a let down..overall though I loved the writing, some characters (the deeply mysterious and impossible impenetrable and sexy Simon Serrailer) were totally overdrawn and a little farfetched but I will rock with it if the endings have more zip..will look into more in the series maybe...