Night Fall by Nancy Mehl {Book Review}

**I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for consideration. All thoughts are my own.  

Now that Alexandra "Alex" Donovan is finally free of her troubled upbringing, she's able to live out her childhood dream of working for the FBI. But soon after she becomes a member of the FBI's elite Behavioral Analysis Unit, authorities in Kansas and Missouri contact them about bodies found on freight trains traveling across the country--all killed in the same way.

Alex never expected to be forced to confront her past in this new job, but she immediately recognizes the graffiti messages the killer is leaving on the train cars. When the BAU sends her to gather information about the messages from her aunt in Wichita, Kansas, Alex is haunted by the struggles she thought she'd left behind forever.

In a race against time to solve the case while battling her own weaknesses, Alex must face how far she'll go--and what she's willing to risk--to put a stop to the Train Killer.

Nancy Mehl (www.nancymehl.com) is the author of more than 40 books and a Christy Award and Carol Award finalist as well as the winner of an ACFW Book of the Year award. Her short story, Chasing Shadows, was in the USA Today bestselling Summer of Suspense anthology. Nancy writes from her home in Missouri, where she lives with her husband, Norman, and their puggle, Watson.

Wow, what a way to start off a new series! Nancy Mehl's Night Fall has me impatiently waiting for more in The Quantico Files series! 

In this book, we meet FBI behavioral analyst Alex Donovan who is having to come to grips with her troubled childhood being raised by a cult member aunt as this cult comes to focus in a murder investigation. With a plan to fulfill a prophecy that will ultimately lead to a release of a virus more deadly than Covid-19, the race is on in this high paced suspense. 

Yes, this is a novel about the potential release of another pandemic... and honestly, that's not going to be for everyone right now. For many of us, books are so often an escape from reality, and so perhaps not everyone will be interested in seeing Covid mentioned during their reading. I totally understand that, and perhaps later on it might be one to revisit. On the other hand though, I think because we are still in the midst of a pandemic, it very much makes the idea of a weaponized virus all that more intense and really helps us as readers feel that drama. 

From the start, we know exactly who the primary villain is and what his plan is. While that may take away some of the mystery, I still found myself wanting to see how it all played out...and really dig deeper into the why of why our villain and our hero are the way they are--- given their very difficult (and somewhat similar) upbringings. There were a few twists and turns thrown in to keep things interesting, and while I figured out at least one of those reveals quite early on, it didn't impact my enjoyment of the story.

Overall, I found this to be a fantastic read that fans of Christian suspense do not want to miss. I cannot wait to see what comes next!