Someone is violently attacking single women in her city - is a newly minted FBI agent up to the job of stopping them?

Riley Fisher is not new to law enforcement; she followed in the heels of her grandfather to rise from patrol officer to an investigator with the rank of sergeant in Cedar Falls, the small Iowa town where she grew up.  When her work on an investigation caught the attention of an FBI behavioral analyst, Riley was offered the opportunity to join the FBI.  She made the difficult decision to seize the chance to carve out a new life and leave behind  the relative safety and security of her job (as well as the not always welcome ties to the family of which she had become the de facto caretaker).  She is granted her request to be posted to the resident agency in Des Moines, which is a couple hours away from Cedar Falls….close enough to her family if needed, but far enough away to maintain some measure of independence.  Riley soon is questioning her decision, however.  Her somewhat cold new boss, Connie Meadows, believes that Riley got the job through having friends in high places, and the other agents with whom she will be working aren’t particularly welcoming either.  When the security team of the state’s new female governor, Jess Cook, contact the FBI for help due to a recent alarming threat against Cook’s family, Meadows assigns Riley to accompany a more senior agent, Peter Altman, in looking in to the matter.  Given that Cook narrowly escaped an attack by an angry extremist right inside the capitol, no one is taking any chances with this latest threat.  Meanwhile, the city is unnerved by a recent spate of violent attacks against women that have yielded no suspects.  Veteran Detective Julius “Fogg” Verne of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigations is leading the investigation into the attacks, and is feeling a tremendous amount of pressure from above and from the city at large.  Elements of the most recent crime lead him to believe that these crimes are related to unsolved cases perpetrated years earlier by someone the press had dubbed the Sin Eater, which opens up new paths of investigation as well as heightened concerns. Riley sees some similarities between the threats  to Governor Cook and the violent assaults of the Sin Eater, and although her reluctant partner Altman doesn’t give her observations much credence, a task force is formed that has the two FBI agents combining efforts with Fogg.  Altman is happy to push Riley away from him and towards Fogg, and since Riley actually finds it a better working partnership she is OK with that.  Personal problems continue to pull not only at Riley but at others in the group, threats against the governor ratchet up in intensity, and victims’ families are turning up the heat on the police to find whoever is behind the brutal attacks before someone else falls victim.  Riley will need to combat her own questions about her abilities, less than supportive work partners, the ever-present hint of sexism and a healthy dose of office and inter-office politics while battling demons from her past and a family that doesn’t want to let go as she works to solve the two cases.  
I was hooked by the underlying mystery from the very beginning, and enjoyed getting to know the character of Riley Fisher.  She is at a crossroads in her life and career, and how she negotiates her way through both adds to the enjoyment of a solid thriller.  Fogg is another interesting member of the cast, a dedicated officer of the law who has always been able to maintain enough detachment from the evils he sees each day to prevent them from coloring his personal life but is finding it increasingly difficult to do so.  The two make a good team, each dedicated to the job and talented at it.  The underlying mystery rolls out steadily,  has more than a few twists, plenty of potential suspects, and a conclusion that came as a bit of a surprise.  I enjoyed reading Original Sins and look forward to another installment of the series (this is the second novel featuring Riley Fisher, the first being The Fields).  Readers of Linda Castillo, Lisa Unger and Allison Brennan should give this book a try, as should anyone who would enjoy a strong if flawed female protagonist fighting to make her way in a field still largely dominated by men.  Many thanks to NetGalley and Flatiron Books for allowing me access to an advanced reader’s copy of Original Sins in return for my honest review….it was a pleasure to read!

Full thoughts: https://fictionmajorette.blogspot.com/2024/02/original-sins-erin-young.html

As usual with police procedural series, it isn't strictly necessary to read the books in order as the main investigation plots are self-contained.  I did read the first book in the series - The Fields - and really enjoyed it (review linked here) - however, I think this would work very well as a stand alone.  

Young writes in the acknowledgements section at the end that this was her quarantine book and the inspiration certainly comes through.  We get a good amount of the political climate of the time coming into play and I liked the political suspense/thriller aspect which was also an aspect I enjoyed in the first book in the series.  

Along with the political aspect, we also societal tensions around women and their 'place' in society.  There is a lot of language around women knowing their place, and being punished if they step out of that very restrictive role that some men think they should be in.  Also, we do see a number of Sin Eater attacks on page, and the viciousness of these attacks is not held back.  For me, these parts were a pretty visceral reading experience, but I could see someone with personal experience in these types of situations having a hard time reading them.  

I loved the Sin Eater investigation and was very invested in that plot line.  I found it the perfect amount of twisty and it had a lot of areas for Riley and the team to look into.  

We get multiple POVs and I think Young does a fantastic job at using the different POVs to deepen the story.  The ending resolution is a little complex, but I think it would feel very messy and out of left field if we were only following Riley.  Having the other POVs help give the reader some background information to give context to some of Riley's investigation threads which helped me feel like the ending reveal was more grounded than it might have otherwise felt. 

Overall, this was another good procedural/mystery/political thriller read from Young and I look forward to reading on in the Riley Fisher series. 

Thanks to NetGalley and Flatiron Books for the ARC.  Expected publication date is February 13, 2024.

I have very quickly become a fan of Erin Young's Riley Fisher books. The Fields was a dark and brooding thriller that kept me rapt. The setting for Original Sins may have changed - Riler starting out on a brand new career with the FBI in the city - but the book has lost none of the tension or darkness I was expecting. If anything, it's opened up the realms of the possible a little as in a city, even one as relatively small as Des Moines, Iowa, there is a greater capacity for violence, corruption and, as Riley is set to find out, danger. 

I really like Riley Fisher as a character. She has her share of problems, and a very challenging family situation which she has deliberately tried to leave behind her with the move to the city. What she hasn't been able to leave behind is danger which has an alarming ability to find her. Tasked alongside a new, and very reluctant colleague, to investigate a threat against the state Governor, Jess Cook, it doesn't take long for Riley to make a possible link between the threat and spate of attacks against women across the city by a vicious character named by the media as the Sin Eater. Being the newbie, Riley has a real battle on her hands to be taken seriously, in part because of the way in which she found herself attached to the Des Moines office. But the author has infused her with an addictive determination and tenacity, as well as a fabulous ability to hold her own in some very sticky situations. She's not superhuman, and her gender is very much against her given the circumstances, but Erin young balances the divide between being the 'weaker' sex and her natural instincts well keeping it all very plausible.

There is a really dark undertone to this book. I don;t think it felt quite as stark as The Fields did at times, but there is an underlying sense of threat that runs from the start of this book. The author has taken the very risk danger that women are in on a daily basis, that feeling of unease and sense of jeopardy that comes from being a female alone at night for example and amplified it in a way which feels tragically authentic. It also takes the idea of an Incel style movement and amplifies it tenfold. As readers, we are more aware of the who and the scale of the challenge the FBI and local police face in catching the Sin Eater, and it makes for scary reading at times. There are some moments in the book where the pace and threat really picks up and I could feel myself actually reading faster, desperate to know how it all played out. And with some skillful misdirection and characters who are often quick to dismiss the threats as Riley's overactive imagination, it really did keep me gripped to the very last page.

It's a brilliant blend of action, intrigue, threat and carefully sculpted character that have made this an definite all the shinies read for me. I blasted through it,  quickly reminded of what a compelling storyteller Erin Young is, and how much I like Riley Fisher. If you haven't picked up The Fields yet, I'd recommend you start there as although this is a self contained story, you'll understand Riley and her family situation so much better if you go on the, sometimes traumatic, always addictive, journey with her from the start.

 

THE FIELDS was an excellent debut novel so I was excited to get an early copy of the sequel. I think I enjoyed this one even more! Riley continues to a fantastic MC - strong, resilient and a quick on her feet. I really enjoyed the two mysteries throughout this one and was so interested to see how they were connected. There are some spoilers from THE FIELDS. It wouldn’t kill your reading experience if you read this as a standalone but I do recommend reading THE FIELDS first.