Couple Killer

Violet Darger FBI Mystery Thriller, Book 9

By: L.T. Vargus, Tim McBain

Narrated by: Natalie Naudus

A shadow walks the streets at night. Stalking couples in their cars. Flashlight in one hand. Gun in the other. Killing people is so much fun.

When multiple murders terrorize a small town college campus, FBI profiler Violet Darger heads to rural Michigan to investigate. As soon as she arrives, a grim history begins to emerge.

The crimes have progressed steadily over a period of 18 months.

Indecent exposure to stalking.

Stalking to rape.

Rape to murder.

The UNSUB's emphasis on power and control rapidly verges toward full blown sadism. He grows ever bolder, ever more vicious.

What could be more dangerous than a killer aroused by expressions of rage? Increasing brutality. Overkill.

Understanding his psychological motivations will guide the efforts to stop him.

Darger digs into the history. Tries to figure out how the perpetrator advanced unchecked to graver and graver trangressions.

What she finds buried in the police records unsettles her as much as the murders themselves.

While a faceless killer terrorizes the campus, the school administrators remain focused on burying the story.

The revelation creates another complication: The students feel disenfranchised. Angry.

Prostesters gather on lawns. Ignore the citywide curfew. An uprising brewing all over campus.

Darger must navigate an uncooperative administration, a powder keg of a campus, and a killer as savage and dangerous as any she's ever faced.

When it all boils over, chaos descends on the townspeople. And the killer walks among them.

The novels in the Violet Darger series can be read as stand-alones. Scroll up and grab Couple Killer now.

©2022 L.T. Vargus and Tim McBain (P)2022 L.T. Vargus and Tim McBain

The Violet Darger series is one of my favorites.

Violet and her partner, Loshak, work well together, without any romance to mess up their working together. The books are interesting, sometimes violent, without being TOO gory. But the narrator, Natalie Naudus, can be annoying. I like her 75% of the time, but when somebody is 'thinking'', she theatrically lowers her voice so much I have to turn up the volume to understand what she's saying. I'm changing volume so much and it gets old, especially when I'm driving. I wish somebody would tell the producers. It's not quite enough to keep me from listening to them, but . . .

Really weird

These books are getting very strange. Not really what I like and the reader mumbles through half of the book. I already have the next one in the series. I will try to return it. If not that will be the last one for me. I like the new Maddie Castle series much better.

Best Violet Darger yet!

I’m a huge fan of LT Vargas and Tim McBain and this is my favorite Violet charger, yet! I knew I would be taking a long road trip so I saved this audible book for the occasion. When the drive was done, I pulled over and stayed in my car for another couple of hours just so I could finish it. That’s how good it is. I don’t know what I’ll do on the way home! It’s a non-stop, rollercoaster ride, this one.

Not enough

I liked the book it just needed more Darger and loshack it was just to much about the college and not nearly enough about the killer and the case needs more excitement in the chase

An excellent dark gritty thriller.

A few months ago, I read an advance review copy of Couple Killer and my original review is included below this update. I recently I got the opportunity to get a review copy of the audiobook for Couple Killer from the authors. Natalie Naudus does an excellent job narrating this book, in my case her narration made the story feel like I was experiencing it for the first time. Furthermore, she does an excellent job of bring Darger and Loshak to life.

Couple Killer, the latest in the Violet Darger series is undoubtably the best of the series! Not only is this one of the best researched books I’ve read in quite a while, but the authors also did an excellent job setting the stage for a story set in a university town. When I had finished to book, which by the way happened in one sitting because I couldn’t put it down, I had a good background into serial killers and into several in particular. All Violet Darger books are action packed and filled with misdirection or several twists that keep your head swimming, Couple Killer not only fulfilled these elements, but took the Darger series into a much darker and grittier direction than the earlier books. The next episode in this series cannot come soon enough, I really want to know where Darger & Loshak are headed next. I received a review copy of this book from the author and chose to provide my review.

Double murder delight

Roommates Brain and Cody going back to their room after a night of pledge partying find a trial of blood. Cody tells Brian he thinks it's a pledge horror scavenger hunt. Curious they follow it first to a car, then to the parking lot of the local Auto Zone store when they find a body. Cody laughing still thinking that it's a pledge trick goudes Brain into going over and checking out the body that they find there. To their horror Brian finds that the body is not only real but alive and seriously wounded.

Darger arrives at SMU (South Michigan University) to meet Loshak at the scene of this latest double murder. She's introduced to Officers Kidney and Dixon who explained that the body of the male had been found here at the Auto Zone and the body of the female a few hundred feet away. That it looked as though the man had been shot in the truck of the car and had crawled to the store to find help.

The campus police in this story are less than helpful and truthful. Are more concerned with making the University President, Whitman happy so they don't lose their jobs than solving a crime. Let alone do the right thing. President Whitman is more concerned with making sure that the University has a good reputation than the welfare of the students. Therefore when the reports of a flasher started they were ignored. Reports of rape began, they were buried. Unfortunately, when the murders began they couldn't hide or bury those.

At what becomes, in my opinion, a breaking point in this book, the President holds a press conference to announce that there will be a curfew enacted immediately on campus. That everything except the Homecoming Game will be cancelled. That there will not even be attendance allowed at the game. That announcement causes an immediate reaction from the students that should have been foreseen. A roving band of angry protesters turned into a riot that had devastating consequences. Giving the killer the cover he craved.

Ooh the killer. I dare you to figure out who the killer is before the reveal.

I'll admit at this point that I had a difficult time writing this review. Not because this book was bad NO! Just the opposite. Because I had so much I wanted to put in but was at a loss because I didn't want to make this review too long. I didn't want to put in a bunch of spoilers. I didn't want to write a book about this book. There are so many great characters in this one it was hard to choose which direction to go in.

Disappointing…

I’m really sad with the direction this series has gone. The first half of this series was so interesting. But over the past few books I’ve been noticing there is way to much filler and not enough detail. We used to get really detailed insight into the killer (backgrounds details, why they were they way they are, the snapping point). Now we get killer POV without any other context and it’s feel wrong hearing their thoughts without it. I learned more about Loshak’s worry about microplastics than true details about the killer from an FBI Profilers POV. These books have the potential to be amazing and from previous books I know the authors have the ability. Not sure why they aren’t following through with that unique aspect anymore…

Too much padding

The authors must of run out of ideas. Way too much of the story line consumed by irrelevant padding.

Crazed college student killers

As usual this series just hits in range of the target of credulity but misses it. A riot ensues: college students put on a curfew and denied access to homecoming activities: naturally they become a murderous mob, commit multiple murders and leave the city in burning shambles? I wasn’t even aware that homecoming was a thing in college. Victims are also super dumb. They worry about being attacked in their cars by a serial killer so naturally they leave their doors unlocked as they make out—even when they think they see the killer outside. There’s plenty of women in peril if you like that. Action scenes, usually underwritten by writers have too much detail—when you have a victim near death in your car it’s not the time to elongate the moment on a micro movement by micro movement basis. But this is another characteristic of the series. As usual Darger succeeds in keeping up with a running man. Does she take steroids?

Too chatty.

I’ve read many of her books. They’re becoming far too preachy, and like she’s on a soapbox.