Frank Bennett ermittelt mit Eden wieder in einer Mordserie. Es werden Joggerinnen mit zerschlagenem Gesicht aufgefunden. So schön und jung sie zu Lebzeiten sind, sieht man davon in ihren Tod nichts mehr davon. Frank und Eden haben es nicht leicht irgendwelche Anhaltspunkte zu finden. Zumal eine Joggerin auch noch ein großes Event aufzieht, indem sie jeden Menge Jogger zu einen nächtlichen Lauf aufruft um es dem Serienmörder zu zeigen. Ob das gut geht?

Spannend aufgebaut bis zum Schluss.
Eden hat noch mit ihren Verletzungen aus Band 2 zu kämpfen und Frank trauert noch um seine ermordete Freundin, auch wenn er mit Imogen zusammen ist. Neu hinzu kommt Hoocky, ein sehr kluges Mädchen, die irgendwie an die junge Eden erinnert. Frank hat die Möglichkeit wieder ein Stück hinter Edens Fassade zu blicken. An sich fand ich die Geschichte nicht schlecht auch wenn mir einiges nicht so gut gefiel. Hoocky an sich ein sehr interessanter Charakter aber irgendwie schade das sie erst jetzt auftaucht. Imogen war mir sehr unsympathisch man hat ihre narzisstische Seite sehr gemerkt. Irgendwie habe ich mich gewundert dass Frank nicht gemerkt hat wie sie so tickt, da war Eden mehr auf zack.
Eigentlich schon alles was ein außergewöhnlicher Thriller braucht aber mir hat irgendwie was gefehlt.

With her first two novels Candice Fox carved a distinctive square on the map of contemporary crime writing. Taut with suspense, well-oiled plot mechanics, explosive bursts of violence, and chockfull of surreal, yet somehow relatable characters comprised of a plethora of doubts, anxieties, and hidden darkness, Hades and Eden made it abundantly clear: Fox is an enormously skilful writer, and unquestionably Australia’s hottest talent operating in the genre today. Now comes Fall; polished and primed, it is a stylish, explosively tense thriller. Somehow, Fox has upped her game. This is, quite simply, crime writing of the highest order.

Fall is a culmination of plot threads from Hades and Eden, but new readers needn’t worry: Fox dexterously feeds the essential backstory, in a nuanced fashion that won’t leave veterans bemused. Detective Frank Bennett is still struggling to cope with the knowledge that his partner in the Homicide Department, Eden Archer, moonlights as a serial killer. Her targets might be society’s underbelly, but no matter how you look at it, it boils down to cold blooded murder. Thankfully there is work to keep Frank distracted, and a new case is quickly thrown into his lap. Someone is targeting Sydney’s beautiful people; nabbing joggers from the city’s premier parks and leaving their bodies for the police to find. Meanwhile, Frank’s girlfriend, Imogen Stone, is closing in on Eden’s true identity, determined to uncover the truth for fame and fortune. But when another damaged soul becomes aware of Imogen’s secret investigation, her plans go awry very quickly, and there is more than just her life on the line.

Candice Fox’s storytelling takes no prisoners. This is a novel fuelled by pure adrenaline and hidden agendas rather than a traditional whodunit in the mould of, say, Michael Connelly. It’s a pyschothriller; Fox digs deep into her character’s psyches, exposing them at their rawest, while propelling them headlong into danger. It’s a novel that has plenty to say about society’s stance on women and beauty, but it doesn’t get bogged down in its messaging. First and foremost, Fall is a thriller, and a fine one at that. Every page crackles with energy; every chapter ends on a note demanding the next page be read.

Fall will most impact those who’ve been with Eden Archer and Frank Bennett since the beginning. Though these characters have only been with us for two preceding novels, their history has weight and meaning, and it is fundamental to the novel’s gut-punch of an ending. That’s not to say the novel is burdened by continuity; far from it. Fall will surely leave even new readers gaping, and screaming at their ceilings, “How can it end like this?!” But for those of us who were there from the start? Damn. It’s wonderful to read a series that feels like it has direction rather than spinning its wheels. No doubt, Candice Fox could’ve produced several whodunits starring her conflicted protagonists, Frank and Eden. No doubt they’d have been good, too. But Fall propels their story to the next level, when its least expected. Just when you think there’s a status quo to become accustomed to, Fox pulls the carpet out from under her readers. And it doesn’t feel cheap – it’s earned.

Relentlessly fast-paced and beautifully structured, readers will bomb through Fall in no time and enjoy every second. If you haven’t read Candice Fox before, jump on the bandwagon now. This feels like her breakthrough book into the mega-sellers. Fall is that good.

This is my first foray into the world of Candice Fox and coming in at book three was probably not the smartest idea. This book can be read as a stand alone with no issues at all. Fox is able to bring into the world quickly and you are racing along with the story. However, this is a series where knowing the characters previous interactions will only enrich the story. I will go back and read the other books but I should have done that first! Bad reader.

Detectives Frank Bennett and Eden Archer are knee deep in crime and waist deep in personal troubles. Someone is out there killing female joggers, the people are not happy about it and about to take action. For Bennett, he is still struggling to come to terms with the past with his girlfriend Imogen creating tension with his partner Eden. The Amy comes to the fore and shows her skills and potential in some disturbing ways.

You have to feel a great deal of pity for Bennett as it does not seem that he has one female in his life who is does not have some severe hang up. He is certainly surrounded by women who are deadly and Bennett is part of their agenda. All of the women in his life seem to want to manipulate and own him in some way. At times when I was reading, I was thinking Bennett are you really that stupid, do you not see the clues to behaviour that are laid out before you?

While Bennett's story is the main narrative it is Eden Archer that is really driving the story. What you have is two characters both rising from the ashes of the past traumatic experiences but it Archer who accepts her embraces her calling. There is a darker change in the character, even though her past is not pretty, what happens here, well, Archer appears to be in full survival mode. Wanting to protect her identity and her past, no matter the cost to others around her.

Fox has written a snappy, engaging thriller that is dark with a foreboding of greater evil to come. A real cracker of a read.

Wow-Wee! Candice Fox delivers once again! This series is one that I would gladly re-read again and again. It is THAT good. I’ve rated all 3 five stars as each were unputdownable; I couldn’t wait to find out what’s going to happen next from one page to the next much less from one book to the next. I am hopping from one foot to another in impatience for the next instalment of Archer & Bennett.

Eden ends with a threat hanging over Eden’s secret identity. I was truthfully anxious to find out how this will pan out; I was afraid of what this will mean to Eden’s nocturnal activities, her ‘relationship’ with Bennett, and also afraid for the safety of the person who’s about to blow it all out. And just how did it turn out? Well! You really must read it for yourself since I couldn’t believe what happened & had to read it a few times over before it actually sunk it that she did it… when a few minutes before I was wailing, ‘No… No… Noooo…’

Eden, as the antiheroine, has a void insider her when it comes to empathy. This was highlighted very much in this novel. Bennett, on the other, appears to be a desperate case but there’s a little light of hope for him… What’s happened in this novel though dimmed what little hope there was and I’m not sure exactly whether I’m excited or nervous as I believe we are about to witness the dark-side of Bennett. Or are we?

If you love antiheroines, if you love your crime novels, you MUST read Candice Fox. I highly recommend this series, Archer & Bennett, to everyone. There are baddies and there are baddies. There’s the twist and then there’s THE twist. This series has utterly won my heart and Candice Fox my loyalty.

Thanks Random House Australia for eARC via NetGalley in exchange of honest review

Returning for a third instalment of the Archer-Bennett series, Fox takes readers down the more precarious of thriller rabbit holes while keeping things as sinister as her past two novels have exemplified. After almost losing her life to a serial killer and admitting her moonlighting as a killer herself, Eden Archer must rely heavily on her partner, Frank Bennett. Their latest case sees women targeted while out for a run, tranquillised and their faces pummelled. With little but CCTV footage that shows a shadowy figure, Archer and Bennett struggle to make any progress. Bennett's girlfriend, police psychologist Dr. Imogen Stone, has a project of her own on which she is working; seeking to bring closure to long-ago cold child kidnapping cases in Australia. Using her numerous connections, Stone is able to focus her attention and acquire the large rewards, though she does so anonymously. Her most recent project is to nail down whatever happened to Morgan and Marcus Tanner. The deeper she digs, the more her inclination leans towards Eden Archer as an adult Morgan. Piecing together what Heinrich 'Hades' Archer might have had to do with the kidnapping and murder of the children's parents proves to be Stone's central focus, which puts Eden on the defensive when she learns of this through backchannels. This is one secret that cannot be revealed, no matter what. While working the 'Sydney Park Strangler' case--poorly named, but catchy for media sound bytes--Bennett encounters a victim with whom he worked in the past, young Amy 'Hooky' Hooku, a tech-savvy seventeen year old whose skills have her working off the books for the authorities. While Bennett liaises regularly with Hooky, this puts Imogen Stone in the awkward position of being jealous of a child. While the killer's backstory is told throughout the novel, it is only when a strong-willed woman seeks to take the city back for those women who enjoy running in the city's parks that it becomes the greatest cat-and-mouse game that Archer and Bennett have ever witnessed. Over seven thousand potential victims and one killer who has offered little to identify them. Will Stone uncover Eden's true identity while the killer remains on the loose, thereby distracting the detective from her job to sweep the breadcrumbs under the table? And how can Archer handle her partner's constant discussion of the moonlighting she has been doing, questioning every dead body that turns up in Sydney as perhaps being one of Eden's kills? Poignant down to the final sentence, Fox pulls her readers into a vortex from which their is no exit, save a fall into the abyss of confusion.

Before I go any further, the title and progress of the narrative hint towards this being the final novel in a powerful trilogy, one that should not be read out of order if the reader enjoys a captivating story that develops over time. Fox has utilised all her skills and shows why she was awarded some key Australian literary honours for this series, as she places two detectives, polar-opposites to one another, together and has them fighting crime on the streets of Sydney. The choice of characters and the backstories they are given is all purposeful and plays into the larger narrative and the storylines as they fuel the series' momentum. There is little to say other than that there is much to enjoy in the banter between characters, sarcastic and jilted as it can be. The narrative takes twists and turns, while revealing much from the outset. Fox seeks not to create a 'whodunit' but more a 'how with they get to the answer' situation, which places the reader in the driver seat from the get-go. The inner struggle each character possesses helps to construct a larger and more uncertain central foundation that propels the narrative into countless directions. One could also comment that the lack of formal chapters (though breaks in momentum create natural places for them) helps to show that the entire novel is a single fall, slow in the beginning, but quicker by the last third. Fox does not shy away from surprises, some of which will hit the reader from unexpected directions. This only goes to strengthen the argument that Candice Fox is rising from within the genre to make a sensational name for herself.

Kudos, Madam Fox for another powerful novel. While I know you are co-authoring with James Patterson, I hope your voice is not muted pairing yourself with a juggernaut. You are a force to be reckoned with in the thriller genre.

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