You Wouldn't Want to Finish School

When passing on criminal TV shows, corpses and missing people are never a surprising theme for whoever watches it. And usually these shows show you the side of the criminal as if also telling the story from their point of view. Criminal Minds (admittedly one of my favorite TV shows) is one of those.  I would not have thought there would be an episode I wouldn’t know about until I stopped by this book in the mystery section of my library.

Published in 2008, this novel was written by Max Collins in third narrative. It involves the famous BAU most of us well know from Criminal Minds; Agent Rossi, Hotchner, Prentiss, JJ, Reid, Morgan, and of course last but not least, Penelope Garcia. In the small place of Bemidji, Minnesota; three hunters find a skeleton hand peaking from a bush and from then on the investigation ensues. The BAU team work to find out the criminal mind behind this and begin to find a link to something far worse.

Although Collins gives the traditional frame of a Criminal Minds episode, there are parts of the book where there is too much focus on the description of the setting. Thus, making it seem like Collins is trying too hard to appeal to the occasional loyal Criminal Minds fan.  Nevertheless, I love opening to the beginning of the book and finding the opening quote that is always a tradition with a Criminal Minds episode. Collins made sure to end it on that note.  If you are a Criminal Minds fan, you might just dwell in this rendition of Criminal Minds.