I considered DNF this book a couple of times in the beginning, and decided to push through it. There were some parts that were a little repetitive, however, it is very well written and the last half of the book is absolutely worth the read! It is not one of my favorite books, but I would definitely be willing to read another from this series in the future!

Dark Angel, by D.K. Hood

An FBI agent, who is the daughter of a serial killer and a self proclaimed psychopath? I’m in!

Unfortunately, this lacked something for me. I found Beth’s attitude irritating and this took my focus away from the clever plot. I didn’t feel the suspense that the storyline warranted due to the emphasis on Beth’s unorthodox approach which took over.

I think that if Beth’s background was explored more, it would have given a better understanding of her as a person, rather than justifying every action as her “dark side”, which felt like we were getting half a story.

3 ⭐️ Thanks to Netgalley, D.K. Hood and Bookouture Audio for an ARC in return for an honest review.

Interesting premise and much of the book and characters were enjoyable, but not quite a fit for my readers.at Murder in Common.
Thanks for the opportunity!

Fantastic narration. This book has so many gigantic twists in every chapter. And once again I just Loved reading it. I suppose all you need to know is that it’s a cracking action-packed story with a highly satisfactory ending – I really do recommend it.

This was my 1st book by D.K. Hood but I am totally in for all of them and can't wait for the next in this series! Beth is a bad-ass and I love the interplay between her and Dax and can't wait to see what their partnership brings! Vigilante killing child predators. Yes, please. At least in fiction.

#DarkAngel
#NetGalley

Dark Angel by D.K. Hood
Detective Beth Katz #1
Narrated by Lauryn Allman

Successful FBI agent, Beth Katz, lets us know right at the beginning of the story that she is a serial killer. She learned from the best of them, her serial killer father. But Beth's killing is different because her father gave her a deep seated hunger to stop people like him.

Now Beth has gotten herself sent to Rattlesnake Creek in the Rocky Mountains. Her latest case had her superiors looking at her funny and her psyche evaluation convinced them she needed a change of scenery or, as Beth is pretty sure, a babysitter. So now she's working with loner Dax Styles, in the middle of nowhere, and she will have no way of scratching that serial killer itch.

Turns out Beth is wrong and her new stomping grounds are a bee hive of activity when it comes of men preying on girls. But Dax is smart and Beth knows she has to play her cards right or he'll see right through her hunger to bring bad guys to justice. She has to hide the crazy in her eyes when the dark mood comes over her or she'll be giving herself away.

I thought I wouldn't like Beth at all since her dark side is really dark. But she explains herself in a way that helps me to see what she is feeling and how she tamps down the dark side as best she can. Plus she has it aimed at those who deserve her kind of justice so her reasons for being the way she is seem less like excuses and more like a pretty good idea if you want young girls to be safe. Lauryn Allman narrated the story and does a great job as Beth and I look forward to seeing what kind of trouble Beth and Dax get into next.

Thank you to Bookouture Audio and NetGalley for this ARC.

I believe this author is another ‘new to me’ one!
And this one is the start of a new series for her. So if you like her books, be sure to check this one out!
Beth Katz is an FBI Agent, and a good one too! But the problem is that she seems to have a dark side. One that no one can ever find out about…or else. After one difficult case, her boss is concerned, and sends her for a psych evaluation, as she seems to not show any empathy to the accused…
In order to give her some ‘rest’, she is reassigned to a small town.
She is not happy to be there, and her new partner, Dax, doesn’t seem to be either…
But, they try to make the best of it.
And then, new things start happening in this small town.
Bad things. To little girls… In pairs.
And Beth decides that she needs to get to the bottom of this one. Working together with Dax, they begin to get some leads on the case. She is an expert in cyber dealings, and tries to approach the crimes this way as well. And it seems that the two of them have their own special ways of dealing with criminals. Maybe they CAN actually make this work!
I love that Beth is a total bad ass!
And I love that Dax seems to be one too! (In his own ways…)
Terrific story. Great characters.
But definitely some triggers too: child porn, sex slaves, drugs, sex with young girls…and murder.
If you can deal with all of that, definitely pick this one up!
4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ for me!
Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for an ARC of the audiobook which will be released on September 12!

Just finished listening to this book and it has secured a place as a new “go to” crime thriller/detective series. The narrator was very good and easy to listen to. Once I was hooked, which was super early on, I could not stop. I’m giving this book a 4.5/5⭐️.

Wow! This book was a great start to a new series. I’m excited for the next up. It was fast paced and kept you on your toes. That being said although the narrator did a good job I was a little confused of what were thoughts of a character and what was the telling of the story. The male characters were hard to keep track of who was who. I love audible books because I can multitask aka clean 😂 but I had to really concentrate to keep track of them all. Now that Beth and Stiles have become partners I would think the next book will be a little easier to get everyone in the line up of secondary characters.I’m sure the others will be appearing in the following books and there may be a love interest coming Beth’s way.

FBI, serial-killer, unputdownable, suspense, thriller, psychopath, K-9, working-partners, triggers, trafficking, abduction, criminal-acts, crime-fiction, crime-thriller, family-drama, family-dynamics, family-history, local-law-enforcement, first-in-series, new-series, Montana, investigations, investigators, real-horror, serial-murder, serial-rapist*****

Special Agent Beth Katz is exceptional. She is also a serial killer intensely focused on the monsters who prey on children. The FBI is unaware of this aspect of her life but send her off to the wilds of Montana to work with Agent Dax Styles who is an unrepentant loner who always gets the job done. Except for this one particular serial killer who has been around a very long time and has moved into Montana.
Voice actor Lauryn Allman is an interesting choice as narrator whose best talent is ratcheting up the tension.
I requested and received a free temporary audiobook from Bookouture Audio from NetGalley. Thank you.

I was really drawn in by the story description and it didn’t disappoint. The narrator was excellent and really brought the characters to life. It was a gripping story, with quite harrowing descriptions at some points. Great start to a series and really looking forward to book 2. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for giving me access to an early release of the audiobook.

Jump into the mind of a psychopath, a true predator hidden in plain sight, but with the best twist—an FBI agent whose mission is to protect kids from people even worse than she is. With the thrills and plotting we all know to expect from the fabulous DK Hood. A great series introduction with soooo much potential for great stories. Can't wait for the next one.

Beth is not your usual FBI Agent, she is the daughter of a serial killer. She is dedicated to hunting down murderers especially those who target children.

She is moved to Rattlestone Creek and works with her new partner Dax Styles when a young girl is found dead. They must work together to find and stop this killer.

Wow, an action packed novel with great characters. Well written and well narrated ( I listened to the audiobook). Highly recommend.

Beth is a psychopath. She tells us this at the very beginning of the story. Her father was a serial killer, and he caused something to be broken within her. But she has honed her psychopathy for vengeance and has pledged to take down all serial killers, sometimes killing them herself (yes, like Dexter). She is the Tarot Card killer, named became she leaves behind Tarot cars near the victims. She even becomes an FBI agent to be able to track them down.

She and her partner are assigned to a case in a small town in Montana, where a school girl goes missing. It becomes clear that there's a killer at work, the Pied Piper, who is using tricks to lure innocent children to come to him.

This was really neat. I always love morally dubious characters. I loved Dexter, so of course I loved Beth another "good" psychopathic murderer.

4.5 stars rounded up. Thank you Bookouture Audio for giving me an advanced review copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Vigilante, serial killer, children taken, a game, a father’s training. Can the F.B.I. catch the killer before taking more little one's?
A young girl’s body is found in a particular fashion in the dark pine forests of Rattlesnake Creek. Beth Katz, F.B.I. Agent and vigilante, hunts down murderers hiding from capture as taught by her serial-killer father when she was a little girl.
The body of the little girl found right on the outskirts of town, turns out to be little Brooklyn Daniels. Dax styles, Beth’s partner, and Beth examine the scene. As it relates to other cold files, Brooklyn and her best friend decided to pick wild flowers upon entering the woods, then they vanished. No clear trace of the direction their had gone or we're taken to. The same item is always left behind…why?
In order to solve this terrifying case, Beth must put herself in a vulnerable spot by walking into the forest to find the beast.
The narrator, Lauryn Allman was outstanding. Her rate, fluctuation, tonality, expressions, character transfers, and character distinctions were “on point”! Very easy and enjoyable to listen to using a smooth, lulling voice.
This book was well written, very dramatic. Full of action, mystery, question, clues…causing your desire to continue listening well past bedtime, fighting the clock and the coming workday to remain at bay just so you can hear ONE MORE chapter!
I recommend this book with a five star rating to all mystery, crime, thriller and even adult general fiction lovers.
Thank you NetGalley, D.K.Hood, and Bookouture Audio for providing this audio copy for my listening and review. All opinions expressed are my own.

DK Hood has dine it again! As a fan of the Cane and Alton series, I wasn't sure what to expect. However, Detective Beth Katz is a darkly twisted badass cop. The story is as intense as her character. Dr. Shane Wolf also makes an appearance which adds to the depth of thus book. It will be interesting to see what will occur in book 2! Thrilling, twisted, and on the edge! Definitely a good read!

Dark Angel is a very good police procedural about a FBI agent and loves to do her own vigilante with serial killers. Beth has a dark side, but will she be able to hide her own true self when she is moved to a small remote town to work alongside another agent.
I was intrigued with Beth's backstory, and then the story just great. Just show's you how dark and sinister some can be. This is a series, I will keep an eye out for the next release!

I enjoyed the narration; it was easy on the ear and demonstrated a decent range. The only small criticism would be the lack of menace in the killer’s voice.

Phillip Larkin was right about mums and dads in This Be the Verse and that is never truer than for Beth Katz, whose father was a serial killer who fills her up with his major fault. Call it PTSD if you like, seeing her father killing her mother has a profound and disturbing effect upon Katz, she takes on his urge to kill. The major difference between them is their victims.

Katz is highly intelligent and thrives at the FBI, first in cybercrime investigations and then working undercover. She is focussed, fiercely determined and deadly, a woman who can certainly handle herself. Like a highly functioning alcoholic, she can pass through the day unnoticed, but at night instead of reaching for the bottle she gets her relief by reaching for a knife, to despatch some vermin-like criminal. She only kills those who deserve to die, in her opinion of course, becoming judge and executioner like Judge Dredd. Thereby paradoxically becoming the very thing she is looking to eliminate. Here it draws on the primal instincts of the reader, of course such actions are abhorrent, but we seem to have deep seated desire for revenge and tough justice for some crimes. One such killing she carries out is flawed and that sees her moved from DC to the backwoods (literally) of Montana, where another maverick Dak Styles can keep an eye on her.

The developing relationship between Beth and Dak is the core of the novel. They are two flawed, damaged agents who have developed different ways of coping with their issues. As this is to be a series with male and female leads it is natural that, 'will they, or won’t they', will surely come into play. The classic sexual chemistry element which can make or break a series, particularly on TV, which is currently at the poles apart stage with neither in the right frame of mind, but we shall see how things progress.

Rattlesnake Creek is very much small-town old west, a world away from DC and with entirely different problems. Here Dak deals with the likes of drunken miners and bullies for the sheriff and is not averse to taking four or five men on and dishing out a beating. He also tells Katz if someone draws a weapon then shoot to kill. So not lilywhite himself but very much at the other end of the scale to Beth. Of course, she needs to hide the most extreme elements of her behaviour and he sees her as being reckless, but there is an overriding sense of them coming to a rapprochement at some point. It’s just a case of how deep she will drag him down or will he end up discovering the truth and bring her crashing down. This gives a nice edgy feel to proceedings.

It’s very much a thriller and so has all the ingredients one might expect, chases, crashes, fights, jeopardy and danger, along with a distinctly unpleasant paedophile killer. There is a glimpse behind the motivation and history of the killer but let’s just say there’s not a lot of hand wringing over him, it’s not that kind of book or sub-genre. Instead, it rattles along at pace with gung-ho all-out action, which is slickly delivered with style, panache and a little wit at times. The violence is not graphic and is essential to the plot.

I would like to thank Net Galley and the publisher for access to an audiobook version in exchange for a fair review.

I really enjoyed this Audio book and its the start of a series so will look out for others as this started off so well
Give this a go if you like a good detective series

D.K. Hood did a great job with writing this novel! This is about an FBI Agent who has some secrets of her own. Agent Katz is one for justice, but is it always by the books? This story is told from a few perspectives, mainly Agent Katz, at times her partner's, and the serial killers! The changing perspectives were seamless. Having the serials killers perspective gives you a unique details of their life and how this started for them.
This was a novel I enjoyed and it was a fairly quick read. I received the audio-book version, and the narrator was decent. There were a few times that the accent she was reading in felt too fake but overall it did not distract from the story. Definitely recommend to folks who enjoy the FBI type mysteries who are in the hunt for serial killers. Who knows you may just discover an extra serial killer in the novel??