Investigative journalist, Kendra Dillon had to pivot when she was fired from her tv reporter job. But she found a better fit as the host of The Cold Trail, a podcast that investigates cold cases and tries to find new lines of inquiry. The fourth book, His to Kill, sees Kendra and her associate producer, Adeline Shoop investigate a more recent cold case - the disappearance of Bria Carson from a Halloween party - a party that was documented on social media from start to finish.

Now this was an interesting mystery. Unlike the previous cases that were years and years old, Bria Carson had tons of media coverage - there's plenty of people who knew Bria and plenty of evidence of her presence and then absolutely nothing. The idea of people vanishing in today's society is both terrifying and completely baffling - and yet seems to happen more often than one would think possible.

So the initial case was great. I loved the explanation and guilty party. That was all good. I liked the way Kendra connects the seemingly unrelated death of a cyclist to Bria's case. I felt sorry for the cyclist doctor, dude got a raw deal. And the killer was a real creep. Even if I could appreciate the genius of having a truck to contain the victim and all evidence. What was not so good was what came after. It felt like this series lost steam as it went ahead. Atwell is revealed at the start as the stalker. Which I totally fkn guessed! But it fell apart and got less believable or realistic as it went on. He's a billionaire who has access to crime labs. That has committed other abductions. And never been suspected. It just became more and more unlikely. In addition to that the storyline for it wraps up too soon. It's like here's your stalker you haven't caught in decades, but oh here's all the evidence and a nicely gift wrapped arrest within a chapter. It didn't work. Which is a shame because up until the reveal this series was really good.

As for the rest of the characters, Artie and Shoop were both great as well and are good friends to Kendra. I would've liked to see more of them. For the romantic relationships, Kyle was back on the scene. Apparently him and Kendra are together and contemplating living together which was meh. The romance in this series has been pretty average. The mum and Big Don were back together and seemed happy. Gillian makes an appearance and is a total boss. I rather liked Gillian, I'd love to see a spinoff series with her as the main character. And Stephanie Dillon is a master at getting what she wants - which in this case was her daughter's stalker. I liked that part, even if it felt weak.

There seems to be a significant time lapse between these books which wasn't terrible but I found kind of annoying. There kept being all these things that happened off page. Still, while it may not have been perfect or as good as the other books, it was still pretty good. and I'd love to read more Kendra Dillon books. 4.5 stars, rounded to 5 stars. ( )