Review: Dreamng Death by Heather Graham

Dreaming Death (Krewe of Hunters, Book #32)

by Heather Graham

Release Date: September 29th 2020

2020 MIRA

Kindle Edition; 384 Pages

ISBN: 978-0778310105

ASIN: B0813579TL

Genre: Fiction / Paranormal / Mystery

Source: Review copy from publisher

3 / 5 Stars

Summary

Ever since she was a child, Stacey Hanson has had strange dreams—and sometimes they come true. Her skills and experience led her straight to the FBI’s Krewe of Hunters. Now a serial killer is stalking Washington, DC, and people are scared. And it will be Stacey’s first case.

Special Agent Keenan Wallace isn’t exactly thrilled to be teamed up with a rookie, but they’re going to have to get past their mutual friction if they want to stop a brutal killer. The victims are all vulnerable women, though the clues lead to suspects from DC’s powerful elite. Stacey can’t escape her nightly visions, but in trying to prevent them from occurring in real life, she might come face-to-face with a nightmare.

 

My Thoughts

Dreaming Death is the next book in a long line of Heather Graham books that I have reviewed and I think my reviews are all starting to sound pretty similar with regards to this author.  Either woman or man FBI agent meets other man or woman who gets involved with a murder, one or both of them have paranormal abilities although one of them is usually shocked by it, they get together to solve a case, they fall in love, everything works out great at the end.  Predictable, formulaic, done.  And I guess that's why I continue to read these books, because I know exactly what I am getting myself into and I use them to take a break from the heavy-hitters that I read.  

 

One of the things that has always drawn me to these books is the research and historical tidbits mixed in with the story line.  In this case, accounts of Jack the Ripper are intertwined with a slew of recent murders in Washington, D.C., and while I am familiar with the Ripper stories, I know a lot of people who aren't so the parallels would be quite interesting.  

 

The plot line is the usual however, this time a rookie FBI female agent paired with an experienced FBI agent, both of whom have special gifts.  I think it's this paranormal part that always draws me back to these books as well as I am always curious as to how the author will introduce a new concept of paranormal activity which can be quite entertaining.  This time it's through dreams. Ok, I'll bite.  

 

At first, the murder scenarios were believable, but then we descend into the 'suspension of belief' part and that I just couldn't do.  Unless every police office, FBI agent, forensics team member are all inexperienced, there were so many things they missed that I just couldn't buy into it.  How do you miss an entire body? Especially when there is pool of blood?  Nope, can't do it.  

 

And where I have had difficulties for a few books now is the romance between the main characters.  For whatever reason, it just wasn't believable in this book either.  And it has nothing to do with people falling for each other in difficult situations, or rather lusting for each other, I just feel like the author has lost that special magic when it comes to the romantic suspense side of things. There just seems to be something missing that used to be there in abundance.  

 

Verdict

Dreaming Death was an entertaining novel, but is full of blatant coincidences, to the point where suspension of belief is just no longer possible and I just shook my head at the silliness of it all.  I did like the main characters, but no necessarily together and I am intrigued by the different ways the author has been introducing some paranormal elements into her stories lately.  While this book can be read as a standalone, I do recommend starting from the beginning as there are some good stories that started the whole thing, plus I love Angela and Jackson.