Die for Me by Karen Rose

Genre: Romantic Suspense
Series: Daniel Vartanian #1 
Publisher: Headline Publishing Group 
Find the author: Website | Twitter 
Buy the book: The Book Depository 
Source: Bought

A secret cellar
A multimedia designer is hard at work. His latest computer game, Inquisitor, heralds a new era in state-of-the-art graphics. But there's only one way to ensure that the death scenes are realistic enough...
An isolated field
Detective Ciccotelli's day begins with one grave, one body and no murder weapon. It ends with sixteen graves, but only nine bodies and the realisation that the killer will strike again...
A living hell
When it's discovered that the murder weapons are similar to those used in medieval torture, Ciccotelli knows that he's up against the most dangerous opponent of his career - let the games begin... (back cover)


I’ve heard a lot of good things about Karen Rose’s books that I had to try them out and since my favorite bookstore had the whole trilogy in store I got them all at once.

This story is about Vito Ciccotelli, a detective who is called in to investigate a body found in a field. He gets help from an archaeologist, Sophie Johannsen, with scanning the field for more bodies. They end up with sixteen graves but there are only nine bodies so they instantly know that the killer isn’t done yet.
There is an instant attraction between the two, but due to the emotional baggage they both carry with them, they have some miscommunications and it really doesn’t start of on the right foot. Normally it would irritate me when both main characters have these issues and/or are damaged, but that didn’t happen this time. Karen Rose did an awesome job of making Vito and Sophie very likeable characters. Yes they have encountered things in life in which they have trouble acting on the attraction they have for each other but it doesn’t inflict everything in there life or investigating these murders.

This book also features scenes through the eyes of the killer, which gives you more of an insight in his sadistic mind. This is one of the most disturbing killers I read in any book. He is heartless, has absolutely no conscious or regard for life and his methods just monstrous. He does what needs to be done for his own agenda and has absolutely no intent on playing games with the police and makes sure there are no traces that lead back to him.  
This does make for some scenes which might be a little hard for some people to read. You get a little bit of torture scenes through the eyes of both the killer and the victims. Also the injuries on the victims are quite graphically described.

Karen Rose did a great job in developing the characters, even the secondary characters too. It’s hard not to like all of them. I know Karen writes books around characters who got introduced in earlier books and I can’t wait to see these characters get their own book.
I loved Karen Rose’s writing. With its 695 pages this is quite a big book, but Karen Rose kept my attention and kept me flipping the pages to see what would happen next. And the romance and suspense worked well together.

I’m really looking forward to reading Scream for me.

My rating: 5/5