This is the second book in Lee Goldberg's Eve Ronin series. I really enjoyed the first one.
Eve is an immensely likeable hero. Some readers complained about the "perfect" nature of her character, but over the years I've known a lot of "perfect" people who seemed like they could do no wrong and make no mistakes, who were always good at what they did. I've been accused of writing such heroes myself at times.
Maybe those kinds of heroes don't appeal to every reader.
However, I know that "perfect" heroes don't have it so good. In the hands of a good writer (and Lee Goldberg is a great writer), those "perfect" heroes have problems and make sacrifices that everyone tends to write off. Pressure mounts, tensions rise, and the cracks invariably show up.
Maybe the character seems over-the-top (I'm looking at you, Indiana Jones, you who masquerades as Joe Everyperson, yet is stronger, faster, and more intelligent than everyone around him in the end), but that's only so those characters can be pitted against larger-than-life threats/villains.
Besides, we love larger-than-life heroes who take a room by storm (Sylvester Stallone in many roles) or come through against desperate odds (Bruce Willis, Liam Neeson, Denzel Washington, etc.). Those heroes and villains make the stories more thrilling with lots of special effects.
Eve Ronin is young, the only woman on a homicide squad, and she has to prove herself every day. I've known female police officer who've had to do the same thing in real life in scary situations. The didn't deal with serial killers or serial bombers. They dealt with everyday things most people would dismiss out of hand, but those situations were no less life-threatening or potentially catastrophic.
I had a blast with the first Eve Ronin book. Read it in December 2019 (before the world fell apart) on a flight to Houston to see my son for a pre-Christmas visit. Usually I sleep on a plane. Lost Hills kept me up the whole flight.
Bone Canyon drops tomorrow and I've got my copy pre-ordered. So it should be in my hands in a couple hours. I plan on reading it before I have to report back to the university.
