This one is hard to talk about Curious One. Endless Evil is a Pruitt County Mystery from author Amanda Feyerbend and it is rough; for a couple reasons. The two killers are so disgusting and terrible, the writing is a bit chaotic at times, and it all is so believable that it could EASILY be based off of true events and real killers. It chills your bones and gives you a massive dose of the creeps. I mean, I honestly don’t even know where to start my discussion of this curiosity. Maybe I should just go for it and see what happens…
Endless Evil – A Fitting Title
So, Endless Evil is the perfect title for this book. It literally was endless evil going on here. As you are well aware, the term evil is one of those words that can mean one thing to me and a totally different thing to you. However, I really think I am safe in saying that these two killers were truly the embodiment of evil.
First off, the book was written by the days. When you realize that it took 12 days total from the kidnapping of the first victim to the death of the killers… that’s kind of crazy. I mean, even the book mentions how different from reality the crime shows are on television, but to have it laid out in that format, for me, it was a lot more realistic and believable. The shows, even though they obviously span days, definitely make it seem like it is nonstop for 5-ish days and then when they catch the baddies, the case is done and closed until the court date. But in reality it takes weeks to find the baddies and then it still takes additional weeks and weeks to sort and gather and make the most sense of every piece of evidence involved.
Endless Evil begins fast, the very first chapter telling you how these two guys are kidnapping women from the highway while the second chapter skips forward two days to the police finding her and beginning their investigation.
The only thing I found a bit annoying in the beginning was how they refused to even entertain the idea that the first two women found were connected. I mean, I get that they looked totally different, were different ages and had completely different backgrounds, but the fact that neither of them were drug users, they were found in identical circumstances, they both had cars missing and they both had the same markings on their arms would have totally made me believe that they were connected, almost from the first moment of seeing the second victim. Especially since in their small town, murder just doesn’t happen like that. I’m just saying….
The Detectives
Alex Gray, the main detective, seems a bit intense. He is competent and fully capable, but there always seemed to be something about him that was intentionally hidden. I was expecting his past to be delved into a bit more than it was considering how much attention the author was bringing attention to it. Yet, it was like a bomb dropped on you and then the story literally just moved on. It’s like saying to your best friend of 20 years “hey, my parents were slaughtered in their bed while my sister and I were in our rooms. That’s why we don’t have our parents around. We escaped to the neighbor and stayed safe until the police came, but…. Yeah…”
I mean…wow. Why not give us a little bit more there? I felt it was more important to the main characters back story than a small blip in the final third of the book. Maybe it was only meant to bring the two main characters closer? It succeeded in that, but it was just weird to me, a bit off.
If you recall his partner, John, in this book, I applaud you. He was sidelined so much, but then when he was involved it was a little over-the-top! Like, he was always absent and it took forever to get his story going with his druggie girlfriend Joy and why he was acting the way he was wasn’t revealed till moments before the climax of the story.
This author’s writing was a bit chaotic to me, which is why I think I’m struggling a bit more than usual when talking about Endless Evil to you. I can’t keep up with all the sudden character line changing, plot tidbits and the back stories. A lot was repeated but in an unnecessary way. It was just…yeah…chaotic.
Getting back to his partner. John honestly felt like a write-in after half the story was already written. Almost like the author knew that there was a need for a character who had a girlfriend who would be easy to kidnap and who the killers could mutilate and leave as a message, so John was written into the book after already having been written (I hope you understand what I’m trying to say!).
Anyways, he just felt disconnected to everything he should have been connected to. He didn’t do any detective work in the book, other than going on a ride with Gray and going through some paperwork. Then, when his girlfriend goes missing it was a little messy. First off, she was a massive drug user and secondly, she had left him the night before and in the past when she did this, it would be a day or two before she came back. So, why was he literally freaking out about her not having returned by the next morning? I mean, other than him being dosed up on drugs himself? I just didn’t think that the instant connection to the killers was believable at all.
Of course, it’s a crime novel, so she was actually kidnapped by the killers and mutilated, beaten, and dumped where the one survivor, Megan was found. So, it served its purpose, John’s storyline, but I think it could have been way better. I mean, what police force, especially in a small town, doesn’t realize that a newly minted detective is on drugs and being blackmailed? Why did it take so long for it to come out and why, even after asking Gray (who covered for him a few times) didn’t the chief call in John for a meeting. His behavior was abhorrent and in a normal circumstance, I really think it would have been taken care of before Joy was kidnapped and slaughtered and he got put in the hospital under sedation because he was freaking out. I mean….come on, really?
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Megan – A Great Character with a Small Flaw
Megan, on the other hand, was a really well-rounded character. I only struggled with the obsession put onto her amnesia. The entire world knows that traumatic events easily trigger memory loss or altered memories. Even after the drug wore off that the killers were using which caused amnesia while still in the bloodstream, she never showed any sign of faking her amnesia. Why would she have offered to do everything she did and to stay in the small town where it would be obvious that she didn’t die and that the killers would come after her again and again until they succeeded in killing her if she was hiding something? It was literally obsessed over the entire book until the last, what, two chapters? I was honestly getting a little bit annoyed. Both by her reaction to everything involving the amnesia and the repetitiveness of being told that it was okay that she didn’t remember. That she was already helping immensely; to just keep trying and do her best. Ugh….whatever.
Other than the amnesia obsession, she was an amazing character. Megan was the third woman to be kidnapped by the killers, but due to outside circumstances, she was given the small chance of escaping. She was so strong, I was proud of her. She grabbed a rock that was under the bed where she was being kept (do NOT get me started on the fact that these super careful killers left a random rock under the bed) and when James came to dose her up again with the drugs, she attacked him, grabbed the keys for her chains and escaped through the back door, out a tunnel and into the forest where she ran so hard and fast. Of course, because of her drugged state, she made a lot of noise and fell often so they found her and caught up to her before she fully escaped. She was beaten and strangled and left for dead on the side of the road.
The only saving grace was that she was not raped repeatedly like the other victims.
Megan’s past was sad. When she and her sister were younger, their parents got hit by a drunk driver and died. It was revealed close to where Gray’s parental past was revealed, but hers wasn’t obsessed over. She had acknowledged it and though it still hurt to think about, she had embraced what happened and used it to help her mold herself into the strong and amazing person she was. It honestly was amazing and beautiful to read her part in the book. She was super realistic, even with her annoying obsession about not remembering what happened to her. Maybe I only find that so annoying because of my own past.
Endless Evil Gets Action
Anyways, she shadowed Gray for most of the remainder of the book. The whole time I was waiting for the shoe to drop on the sudden romance between them, but it was very realistic what happened in that department (I will get to their romance in a bit). She was involved all the way up to the end. Her and Gray were getting McDonald’s when she was looking out the window and saw her kidnappers (the killers) in the parking lot.
This is where it goes fast and intense! They speed away from the drive-in and start a car chase. The killers have a police scanner which caused their hope of trailing them to their hide-out to be obliterated. The killers knew instantly that they were being followed the moment Gray called in the tail (I found it odd that in the middle of a manhunt the entire police department was on the other side of town dealing with a collision…just saying…). So, the kidnappers were idiots, taking them directly to their secluded cabin on the edge of town and where they were holding the last kidnapped woman (she had the kid in the backseat).
They chased and changed vehicles and chased again and Gray clipped James with a bullet which caused him to wreck his ATV. They had a super quick chat and Megan stayed behind with James while Gray went after Ray. She of course, follows Gray and during that time gets flashbacks to what happened to her, remembering everything, including the secret tunnel that she escaped from, which is where she headed. Ray emerged with the last victim from the same door Megan had escaped from and at the last minute, she distracted him so Gray could shoot him. He ended up killing him and rushing to Megan who had passed out from the gunshot from Ray’s gun.
Boom! And that’s a wrap…. I’m kidding…. The final chapter in the book was James (the killer who survived) going into interrogation where he relayed all of what him and his fraternal brother had done since they were 16 (that was the age they killed their parents in a store “accident”). I won’t go into detail about Ray and James, only saying that Ray had no conscious and didn’t care about anything or anyone, including his brother. He also had a family! How terrible is that? James also ended up killing himself in the interrogation room, after spilling everything to Gray. Ray and James had done this in multiple locations, all different ways, which helped them go unnoticed and get away with it for so long.
You are left hanging on Megan’s status until the “epilogue that wasn’t titled and epilogue.” She survived the gunshot and regained her memory and moved in with Gray. Gray also helped the FBI with their conclusion of the case for the next few weeks.
A Surprising Romantic Twist!
Gray and Megan did end up in a romantic relationship. It was done in a much better way than the usually storyline of crime novels. Typically you are introduced to one character and then introduced to the other character and there is an instant knowledge that they will of course end up falling in love and living a happily ever after.
Blech.
This was happily not the case in this book. I would probably be able to say that for the first time ever, their romantic connection was my favorite part. Megan didn’t come into play till about the middle of the book and they didn’t get romantic till so much later that I even questioned if there would be a romance in Endless Evil at all! It was literally perfect. Remember, she was the third of four victims, five if you include Joy, John’s manipulating and druggie girlfriend.
Their romance was not a main story line one bit. It was a breath of fresh air because usually you have all this drama and maybe eye-rolling happenings that go down between the two main characters. Other than Gray questioning whether Megan was faking her amnesia, there was no unnecessary information or writing on their relationship. It just happened and it worked out in a natural, believable, realistic way that was definitely not obsessed over. I loved how it didn’t take away from the mystery or crime of the book.
Typically you end up with a crime, mystery, suspense, psychological thriller romance book on your hands when all you really wanted was to read some bad a$$ cops who took down baddies with the help of a survivor of someone connected to a victim. This was definitely not that and it was amazing!
Final Thoughts on Endless Evil
I know I seem on the fence about Endless Evil, but just read it and take away from it what you can (if you haven’t already). It was worth it and a good change-up from the typical outline of many crime or mystery novels. I don’t think I will read Endless Evil again, unless I eventually get the next couple books in the Pruitt County Mystery series and want to read them all together as a long series.
I struggled with getting pulled into the author’s world here and I really think it was mostly because of the chaotic and disconnect to so many of the characters. I am curious if her next few books in the series are written the same way or if they change a bit and provide a different feeling.
Give Amanda Feyerbend’s Endless Evil a chance. It’s not too long and won’t be totally disappointing. I enjoyed it.
Give me some suggestions of new curiosities that you have run into or want to read and discuss with someone else. I always have time to read your comments and love delving into the curiosity of others! Keep reading, Curious One. Knowledge and curiosity are some of our most powerful traits!
Check out the author, Amanda Feyerabend, at the following links:
Amanda Feyerabend’s website
Twitter
Now, it’s time for me to start another book…
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