Abandoned by Booklikes

Trigger warning: Sexual assault of minor, domestic violence, suicide attempts

"The Boy" is the second book in Tami Hoag's Broussard and Fourcade series. The twosome are now happily (okay somewhat happily) married for several years and their young son. They are dealing with upheaveal in their department with a new sheriff in charge who wants things done his way.  Detective Nick Fourcade is dealing with fall-out of not being able to close a case which involved an autistic young girl being molested and raped. Detective Annie Broussard is dealing with stress from her aunt having a stroke and feeling pulled from being there as much as she would like with her son. When a murder case is called in that involves a young boy found murdered and his mother taken to the hospital after being beaten and stabbed, Nick and Annie worry that the perpetrator is not finished yet. 

I still have Tami Hoag as one of my favorite mystery/thriller writers out there. I wish she do another Kovac and Liska book, but this one can keep me content for now. My main problem I had were the concidences that tied up the whole book in the end. Other than that I was fascinated by this book and think that it was very strong. The first book in this series didn't impress me much, this one though was so so good. 

Nick is still somewhat of an ass. However, you get to see more depth in him in this one. He is pushing back against a new boss who doesn't seem to care about victims, but how much social media press he gets. Annie feels emotionally distant from him right now and he's the primary on the case involving the dead boy. One thing I liked about Nick from before is that he's really good. He begins to dig, and dig and eventually starts putting some things together. I liked how Hoag lays things out via this character.

Annie does well in this one and you get to see how she handles talking to victims and suspects alike. Though less ready to push back at some of her police colleagues, she realizes the new sheriff isn't the best either. Her and Nick both are more involved in this case due to them thinking of their son and what they would do if someone would harm him.

Hoag also jumps around via different POVs in this one. We get POVs of the new sheriff, a woman in an abusive relationship, a young boy, and the dead boy's mother. I did like the reveals we get along the way. 

The writing in this one is very tight and I thought the flow was good.

The setting of the last book really incorporates the looks/feels/ of Louisiana. I think this one did at times, and other times did not. 

The ending as I already said was too many coincidences to be believed, but I was ultimately satisfied when I finished this one.