Review: Dead End Girl (Violet Darger #1) by L.T. Vargus

Print Length: 495 pages

Publisher: Smarmy Press (April 12, 2017)

From Goodreads.com: Her body is broken. Wrapped in plastic. Dumped on the side of the road. She is the first. There will be more.

The serial killer thriller that "refuses to let go until you've read the last sentence."

The most recent body was discovered in the grease dumpster behind a Burger King. Dismembered. Shoved into two garbage bags and lowered into the murky oil.

Now rookie agent Violet Darger gets the most important assignment of her career. She travels to the Midwest to face a killer unlike anything she's seen. Aggressive. Territorial. Deranged and driven.

Another mutilated corpse was found next to a roller rink. A third in the gutter in a residential neighborhood.

These bold displays of violence shock the rural community and rattle local law enforcement. 

Who could carry out such brutality? And why?

Unfortunately for Agent Darger, there's little physical evidence to work with, and the only witnesses prove to be unreliable. The case seems hopeless.

If she fails, more will die. He will kill again and again.

The victims harbor dark secrets. The clues twist and writhe and refuse to keep still. And the killer watches the investigation on the nightly news, gleeful to relive the violence, knowing that he can't be stopped.

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My Rating: 2 stars out of 5

You know one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to choosing novels to read? When the premise is better written and more engaging than the actual novel.

Unfortunately, that was the case with Dead End Girl. What started off as a story with the potential to be the gripping thriller it claimed to be, it quickly went downhill after the introduction of .... the main character. Special Agent Violet Darger. For a woman who was supposedly smart enough to be a member of the FBI, this woman sure did make some rookie mistakes. From leaving her wallet and car keys alone with a potential witness who was also a known addict and thief, to leaving crime scene photos (that she had taken on her cell phone) open on her computer unguarded with a victim's mother, the stupidity of this woman knew no bounds. And then, she had the nerve to further alienate herself from the local officers that she was supposed to be helping by essentially calling them unqualified to deal with the murders. 

It might have been possible to overlook these character flaws as annoying as they were if it hadn't been for all the unnecessary drivel that made up more than fifty percent of this story.  From entire chapters that did nothing to move the plot along, to prolonging a "medical condition" of another character (that in the end, again, did nothing to enhance the narrative).. this story was, unfortunately, neither gripping nor fast-paced. 

As it stands right now, there was not enough presented in this novel that would entice me to continue on with the series at this time.

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                            Dead End Girl is available from Amazon.com