AND THERE HE KEPT HER.....A SMALL TOWN COP BESET WITH SERIAL KILLERS

And There He Kept Her by Joshua Moehling (2022) 

This book doesn't quite seamlessly blend its mixture of small town police procedural, with the now familiar 'enslaved-girl-at-the-mercy-of-her loathsome captor' genre. But that doesn't stop it from becoming a fast paced compelling read.

            And like so many other sleuths in procedurals, acting sheriff Ben Packard struggles with his own stressful baggage. He's returned to policing the same small Minnesota lakeside town where he grew up......where, as a child, his older brother disappeared, never to be found. And now ,as a gay man still suffering the recent tragic loss of someone he loved, he's tasked with finding two missing teens, Jesse and his girlfriend Jenny  the daughter of Ben's cousin.

             For the reader, however, there's no mystery about what became of those kids, who'd been raiding the homes of elderly retirees for prescription painkillers to steal and sell.

           In parallel chapters alternating with Ben's dogged, investigation, we know the unlucky duo picked the wrong guy to repeatedly rob - Emmett Burr, a pain wracked, psychotic, 400 pound horrorshow right out of a Stephen King short story. And Emmet, along with his equally hideous pal Carl share past serial killings of women, they'd captured, horribly abused and murdered in Emmett's homemade  dungeon. 

              Emmett's shotgun wipes out Jesse instantly but Jenny, a type 1 diabetic, finds herself shackled in Emmett's 'pink room'  with her insulin pump running low.

             Now that's more than enough suspense, family dysfunction. creepiness and outright terror to keep you turning the pages at .record speed. Yes it's one of those books that'll make you lose track of time  and stay up all night glued to it as the two side-by-side storylines reach their final collision. 

              As I mentioned before, there's so many elements in play here that they aren't always given the full attention they deserve, such as Ben's dealing with the town's intolerance toward him and the few attempts to humanize Emmett a little.  But the characters did grab me and the story kept me in its right grip throughout. So everything's in place here for a fine propulsive thriller..4 stars (****)