Loved book 1 (which I read 2 years ago) but skipping book 2 (though I said I would read it but I did not) and jumped right into this book 3 (plot was a standalone, gladly). Back with Antonia Scott in her tense adventure now with 3 crimes to solve in return for her partner, Jon Gutiérrez’s life after he was kidnapped by the mysterious Mr. White. As the Red Queen’s agents are currently murdering each other, it seems like Antonia needs to play with Mr. White’s game for Jon’s safety and unravel the lead on the chaos of the Red Queen project that appeared to entwine with those 3 crime cases.

A fast pacing crimey plot but not as exhilaratingly thrilled as I expected. A quarter into the premise and I wasn’t enthralled— I get a glimpse to Mr. White in Red Queen’s epilogue previously, he did make me curious as he tied to Antonia’s past yet his characterization was nothing attention-grabbing much to me. The crime part involved tense action in few scenes, bit messy in execution and as each mission having an extreme time pressure, it gets me bit anxious towards Antonia and Jon’s capabilities to investigate. Though I loved the dynamics of both Jon and Antonia, at times their interactions get me bored with Jon’s dark humors. The author too still continuously (since book 1) bodyshamed Jon mentioning so many times that Jon is fat (I get it, okay) that I was unamused.

Those 3 crimes were not much complicated or that twisty. Trauma-based, bit drama-ish and I sort of favoured that hue of whodunnit which lingered like a cliffhanger until to part IV of Mr. White. Another series of chaos, an attack, a revelation and confrontation— an emotional climax for Antonia (bit surprise too on what she did) yet was quite mild in its thrills than I foreseen. Think I would probably appreciate the plot and this trilogy finale better if I read Black Wolf as well (I have it on my kindle, btw). Loved the epilogue for Jon and Antonia’s character overall. 3.5/5*

**review copy courtesy of Pansing Distribution, thank you!