Hello Again (The Evelyn Talbot Chronicles, #2) by Brenda Novak

Hello Again by Brenda Novak
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Hello Again by Brenda Novak is the second full length book but third overall with the prequel novella in the Evelyn Talbot Chronicles series. Hanover House at novella length introduced readers to Evelyn Talbot who is the main character in this series. Evelyn had spent her life trying to find out what makes a psychopath and how to better understand them. She was tortured and almost killed by her high school boyfriend, Jasper, and has been dealing with that as best she can. Jasper had never been captured and Evelyn lived in fear of him each day of her life and of course when this story picked up 20 years after the high school incident Jasper had truly come back.

Evelyn had managed to obtain funding for a facility in Alaska to house some of the top criminals to begin a study on the nature of these killers which is known as the Hanover House. When the facility in Alaska had been vandalized during construction she traveled there to oversee the damage and hire security. Evelyn began a friendship with Amarok, the local state trooper and for the first time in a long time she let herself begin trusting a man and feeling some sort of attraction.

Now in Hello Again Evelyn’s story resumes after the ending of the last book, Her Darkest Nightmare, where Evelyn and Amarok had grown closer together while working to solve the brutal homicide. Evelyn has begun studying Dr. Lyman Bishop who is better known as the Zombie Maker for his use of an ice pick to try to perform a lobotomy on his victims. But as Evelyn is working with Bishop it comes to be known that his case very well may be overturned which pushes Evelyn to find out more about the man she believes is guilty and does not want to see walk free. But then a new ice pick murder occurs which seems that maybe the man may be innocent but when Evelyn finds she has a connection to the newest victim she begins to wonder if this killer may be Jasper coming back from her own past.

First, I will say that I urge readers that are interested in this series to go back and start from the beginning. While the books could possibly be understood without doing so a reader would miss so much depth in the story and background information if skipping ahead and this series is one that is just too good not to enjoy thoroughly. Each book has built upon the characters and really continued the overall story from Evelyn’s past which made her into the flawed character that she is that I have come to love more with each read. Evelyn is vulnerable after the events in her past that would scar anyone but she’s tough and strong and surviving while trying to make the world better by getting to understand her own worst nightmare in these horrible killers.

The series toes the line between being a thriller or a romantic suspense story as there is a relationship that has formed slowly between Evelyn and Amorak. However, the relationship is not overly pushed in the story but has formed rather slowly while the books concentrate on the action and investigations. This style has revolved in part due to Evelyn’s history and her nature to not trust men from that history but the slower development fit her character to a tee and I think that leaves the series open for those that enjoy either genre to get invested in the series.

Again after reading this edition to the series my only complaint walking away from Hello Again would be that I don’t have the next book in my hands to immediately begin reading. I was as usual caught up in Evelyn’s story and engaged all the way through then left with a what are you trying to do to me Ms. Novak feeling at the end. I will be impatiently awaiting the next book and would encourage readers to give this series a try as I think fans of thrillers and romantic suspense reads will really enjoy this story.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.