Hysteria: An Alexander Gregory Thriller (The Alexander Gregory Thrillers Book 2)

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I still can’t warm to the man and as there are no other characters that transcend their cardboard descriptions, I doubt I will continue with the series. I am enjoying watching Alexander Gregory grow into his character and how he separates his personal life from his work life and will be interested to learn even more about him. The second in the Alex Gregory series is one that entertains but lacks the plot development or characterization of the first in the series. After the big revelations about his past in book one, you’d think there was little left to learn about him as a person, and yet LJ Ross still manages to drip feed new tidbits into the story all along the way, and the more I know, the more I warm to him and understand what drives who, and how, he is. Having read and loved Imposter I was SO excited to read Hysteria and I don’t know how LJ Ross does it, but each book is as awesome as, if not better, than the last!

When another woman is murdered, it is a race against time to solve the case before there are anymore victims.

With Gregory being a clinical psychologist, his focus is every bit as much about the ongoing impacts of the event as it is simply finding out who is responsible.

There is quite a lot of French woven into the narrative, which has been included presumably to give the story a fulsome flavour of France and lend authenticity to location. The characterisation in the story is, as usual, spot on, with a wide variety of different personalities being brought to life before your eyes.Murder and mystery are peppered with dark humour in this fast-paced thriller set amidst London’s vibrant Theatreland. At the end of gregory's lecture, they are summoned by the Brigade Criminelle, the French equivalent of a Major Investigation Team, to attend the main Police Headquarters where they are asked to consult on the case of a vicious attack. I struggled with some of the French language in this one too as I failed my French 'O' level 45 years ago and have barely touched it since!

You definitely need to read book 1, first to understand and fully appreciate the deep psychological issues that trouble Dr Gregory. Overall, I don't regret reading this second installment but felt the author missed an opportunity by not including more substance and engaging storyline depth to this book. Murder and mystery are peppered with dark humour in this fast-paced thriller set amidst the spectacular Parisian landscape. One of the book's strengths was the lack of explicit profanity, sexuality, and violence, thereby allowing the story to stay focused. I’m enjoying the different settings that the author takes her readers to as well as the tangled web she weaves, ensuring we are kept on our toes, not knowing how things are going to conclude.In his personal life, however, he is a tormented soul and he can often find himself distracted by issues from his childhood that can overwhelm him – invariably in his dreams. With his occupation as a forensic psychologist and criminal profiler it means that his scope for interaction with new people and places is wide open.