Maelstrom

by D.J. Schuette

Ten years ago, five-year-old Tommy Lange disappeared without a trace from his front yard in Oceanside, California. Now his big sister, Addison Lange, is an Agent-in-Training with the FBI. She has a particular set of skills, honed over a decade of searching for her brother, and she’s about to unleash them in one final, desperate attempt to find him. But what she discovers is far more than she can handle by herself.

Special Agent and profiler Nick Keegan, suffering the devastating aftermath of his encounter with serial killer Aleksandr Zorin two months earlier, is compelled to help Addie in the search for her missing brother.

But Zorin isn’t yet done with Nicholas Keegan.

The Maelstrom awaits.

368 pages, Paperback

Published October 23, 2018

About the author

D.J. Schuette is an author, blogger, editor, and publisher currently residing in the endless cornfields of Iowa. Sometimes writing as Julian Kincaid, his work covers a variety of genres, from dark thrillers, to horror, to YA fantasy and beyond. He is a published and award-winning songwriter and poet and the creator of enterthemaelstrom.com, a fictional blog written from the perspective of Aleksandr Zorin, the serial killer featured in Chaos. Visit his website at www.djschuette.com

Reviews

[Hayley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great title from Mr. Schuette! I enjoyed the extra focus on Addie this time around - she is a fun character, and her hacking skills are believeable unlike a lot of hacker characters I see portrayed in media. I like the care put into how she does things and manages to keep her identity a secret. The crime-solving aspects are great as well. This one was harder for me to read because of the focus on crimes against children (something that makes me personally squeamish). But without getting into spoilers, I loved the time and perspective shifts, and found them very effective.

Can't wait for the next one!

[Derrick Hodge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another solid entry in the Chaos series! Can't wait for another showdown between Nick Keegan and Aleksandr Zorin...

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I hope to read another with Nick and Addie....

[Chris Norbury · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. Be warned this is a dark story. Psychological thrillers featuring serial killers aren't usually for the squeamish and faint-of-heart, so be warned that some scenes are pretty gruesome. Not so much for the gore but for the thoughts going through the mind of the serial killer, Zorin, who gets his kicks torturing victims and his pursuer, Nick Keegan. Then there are the pedophiles that populate the parallel plot featuring Addison Lange.

But for all the darkness, Schuette shows quality writing chops through his pacing, tension, inner dialogue, believable characters, and attention to detail without boring the reader. I wish I had read the first book in the series first so the backstory for Keegan would make a bit more sense, but Schuette covers that well enough in this book that I get the gist of what happened in book one.