The 34 in the Floor is book 1 in the Sadie Gray 12-book series.
Twelve years ago, Sadie Gray survived an abduction that left the picturesque city of Grass Valley, California mired in shame and controversy. Sadie has quietly suffered ever since.
Now a rookie FBI Special Agent, Sadie is assigned to her first major serial investigation, which forced her back to the Northern California foothills, to the home she swore she’d never return.
A discovery in the dense woods has brought a remote hunting cabin and the darkness inside to light. What starts as a routine murder investigation becomes an intense manhunt for a serial killer with a chilling pattern, and murders tracing back more than a decade.
The national media and true crime podcasters dub it “The 34 in the Floor,” but the Bureau sees the cold truth: this predator is more practiced and prolific than any the country has faced in decades.
For Sadie, it’s not just her first case.
It’s the nightmare returning to finish what it started.
As the investigation deepens, Sadie is forced to confront the fragments of her own past she’s spent years trying to bury. The evidence begins to point to something far more calculated—and far more personal—than anyone expected.
Each clue pulls her closer to a killer who doesn’t just hunt in the shadows, but understands them.
Under mounting pressure from the Bureau, the media frenzy, and a community desperate for answers, Sadie must untangle a web of secrets that spans years—and victims that were never meant to be found.
But the closer she gets to the truth, the more one terrifying possibility emerges:
This case isn’t just connected to her past.
It may have been waiting for her all along.
I really liked this book. It reminds me a lot of the C.M. Sutter Jade Monore series. One of the stark differences, however, is that Jade and her partner, Renz seem to be on the same level. They’re playful, but it’s professional playfulness. Sadie and her partner, Brad, are overly playful, gruff, and more vulgar. She’s young and has a lot to prove, which to me, makes her say and do things that Jade would never do. But, I also understand it. She’s a young woman in a field surrounded by masculine men. She’s got to fit in. Add to that the feelings of other department members, and it’s a fuse waiting to be lit.
So, yes, I’ll continue with the next book in this series. Because the characters are interesting and the cases are even better!