All His Pretty Girls by Charly Cox

Hello Beautiful People! Welcome to a brand new review, this time we go into All His Pretty Girls by Charly Cox.

All His Pretty Girls by Charly Cox is the first book in the Alyssa Wyatt series. So far it seems like there are only two books in the series and after reading this one I want to read the other one. Let’s get into it!

Main Characters:

• Alyssa Wyatt: Detective with the Albuquerque police department
• Cord Roberts: Also a detective and Alyssa’s partner
• Brock, Holly, and Isaac Wyatt: Brock is Alyssa’s husband, Holly and Isaac are their children
• Callie McCormick: Is found naked and nearly dead after being missing for some time

Some warnings for future readers:

• Includes murder
• Includes kidnapping
• Includes the sexual assault and killing of children (these parts are fairly small)

My Review

I really loved this book. It was fast-paced and filled with twists and action. I am giving it an 8.5/10 rating.

Alyssa is a very passionate lovable character. She is very driven when it comes to her work and family life. It presented early on that Alyssa comes from a traumatized background which has pushed her into the line of work she’s in. She tends to have a lot of respect for the people around her but she’s also the type of person who when pushed the claws can come out. Her relationship with her partner Cord is really nice to see as they seem to have a lot of high regard for one another. They both are family people, who can rely on one another to have their back. Cord also tends to be the one to bring Alyssa down when she gets worked up or is stuck in a rut in terms of the investigation. Alyssa’s family life is the much-needed heart-warming parts of the book. It’s clear Alyssa and her family are very close and their interactions and love for one another are a nice break from all the horror, although they do get looped into it as well. Alyssa’s husband Brock is a very supportive husband and is always her person to rely on and he allows her the ability to focus on her family and work.

The main crime that’s focused on in this book is the deaths of many women by an apparent serial killer. The killer leaves no evidence behind and seems to keep his victims for some time in order to torture them further. The crimes in this book are always tough. We get a perspective from Callie who is the killer’s latest victim and it’s pretty heartbreaking. I always find it tough when we get a perspective from the victim because you can’t help but root for them and think that they could be okay, but the nature of these books doesn’t generally call for that. There is a save later on in the book which I get into in the summary/commentary portion, which helps uplift the reader from this apparent loss of the early victim.

Something that I didn’t love about the book is that we get a look at the killer’s early life, which is seemingly placed there in order to explain how he ended up the way he did. Don’t get me wrong the backstory explanation was very relevant and needed for the story, but I just hated to feel even an inkling of sympathy for the killer. I think it’s important as well to push that having a traumatic life is not an excuse to grow up and then kill innocent people. Charly does not present this to be an excuse at all and Alyssa later on in the book presses this as well, but you can’t help but feel the killer wants people to accept it as an excuse for his actions.

The ending of the book was a bit of a bummer. I enjoyed it up until the last peak moment and I felt like that moment kind of washed away the hard work Alyssa had done the whole book. I don’t think it takes away from the book at all, but it just felt like we could have gone without some of the parts of the ending. I get into this more in the summary and commentary portion as well.  

Over all this was a really enjoyable book with a hard-to-put-down mystery at the core of it all. The dynamic of the characters really adds to the book and gives the story a lot more life, but this also gives the mystery more life as well.

Summary and Commentary

***Please be aware this section will have spoilers***

The book starts off with the perspective of an unknown woman. She’s in a place she doesn’t recognize and is in pain and uncomfortable. She can’t move. We get a perspective from some teens in the woods. They stumble upon a woman thinking she’s dead, it’s presumably the woman from earlier on. They think she’s dead but she’s actually barely alive.

The next chapter is presented as being four days in the past. We get a look at Alyssa and Cord as they get a call from the dispatcher. They are needed for a report of a missing person. It’s clear that Cord is the more level-headed, stick-to-the-book kind of person, whereas Alyssa is a bit more go-with-the-flow. That same day we get a look at Callie’s morning before Alyssa and Cord get the call. She seems like a fairly simple woman. Her husband seems to be the dictator in their relationship. Callie goes to take their vehicle in to get fixed and has to deal with some chatty but seemingly harmless old men. I wondered at this part if we were following Callie throughout the day for her eventual meeting with her kidnapper. Did she run into him at the car dealership? Or does she meet him at some other point in her day?

When Alyssa and Cord go to talk to Callie’s husband Rafe, they can’t help but find the guy a bit suspicious. It’s clear his wife was very sheltered by him, and he says and does some things that are odd. Back in the past with Callie, we find out she was taken by a seemingly harmless man who claimed to be their new neighbour who was locked out of his home. Callie didn’t follow her gut and it inevitably led to him being able to overpower her and take her out of the home. However, the man is not harmless and once he has the power his personality quickly switches and we meet the scary side of the killer. He’s clearly a nasty thing who inflates his ego by hurting others. In the present Alyssa and Cord go to talk to some friends of the McCormick’s. Its further pushed to the detectives that Rafe was a fairly controlling guy who wasn’t the best at controlling his temper. I mean as the reader parts like these were kind of boring because we already know Rafe isn’t the kidnapper but I know it’s relevant to explaining the process of Alyssa and Cords’ investigation. The biggest issue between the couple was Callie’s desire to have a baby and Rafe’s desire not to.

Alyssa and Cord go to the dealership that Callie was at the morning before. Nothing is seemingly suspicious in the video but they would like to talk to the old man who approached Callie nonetheless. Cord also makes a comment that Callie kind of looks like Alyssa. Alyssa doesn’t see it. Clearly, the Callie case is getting Alyssa as she worries for the woman’s wellbeing. We get a look at Callie with the kidnapper back at his place and learn his name is Evan Bishop. At first, I thought it was kind of a bummer that we know who the killer is so early on but this changes as we get further into the book. It’s clear that Evan is a messed up person and he is a control freak. What gets him excited is having full control over his victims, it seems to be that if he loses this control this may be when his victims lose their lives. So, far Callie is following his orders to stay alive. It’s sad though because she’s being treated like she’s not a human.

Alyssa and Cord go to talk to one of the older men who was talking to Callie at the service station, who’s named Mr. Leroy. He presents to be fairly harmless and doesn’t have much to give them. It’s clear he’s just a lonely old man. They also talk to a Hunter Jenkins another older gentleman who was talking to Callie at the dealership, he also brings up nothing suspicious. We get a bit of a look at Alyssa’s family and it’s clear they have a healthy and tight dynamic. Despite Alyssa working a lot and her kids getting older it seems to be that everyone just has a mutual respect and love for one another. Alyssa’s husband also seems to be a really great partner who balances with her well. We get another look at Callie with Evan and it’s clear he’s frustrated with her. Callie is emotional, and can’t keep any food down creating ‘messes’ that make Evan upset. Eventually, he grows tired of her and its presumed that he kills her. Back at the station, Alyssa is catching heat from her superiors for not having a stronger suspect yet, or really any at all. I was getting frustrated for Alyssa in these parts. It seems that her superiors like to make demands of her a lot with no ideas or assistance to further help the situation. Alyssa then gets a bit of a break when she gets a call that they’ve found Callie’s car (Evan took her in it). Then Alyssa gets a call that Callie was found nearly dead by some teens and she’s at the hospital. So, clearly, the bit from the first chapter was a draw to what was happening now. I felt so bad for Callie. She went through some terrible things with Evan and now she’s barely clinging onto life.

We find out at the hospital that Callie is not conscious. She was heavily drugged and was badly beaten. Rafe asks if she was sexually assaulted and it’s presented she was not. I found this interesting because it’s clearly just the torture that Evan finds exciting. His crimes may still be somewhat sexual in nature (getting excited by physically hurting women) but clearly, it’s just that he enjoys the control and the power he has. It’s clear when Callie was with him that he had done this before so I wondered what the end game was for him if it wasn’t sexual. It’s clear that Evan is upset once he sees the news that Callie is still alive, as this is not a part of his plan. Evan clearly has self-esteem issues as he physically and verbally hurts himself once he realizes he didn’t complete his plan. He loses a lot of his logical skills when he gets this upset and thinks about going to the hospital to try to finish the job. It’s clear that Evan’s emotions are very unstable and this is probably what gets him into trouble.

It’s clear that Alyssa takes this all hard and feels like she failed Callie. Its shown that Alyssa feels a lot for these cases because she’s had a family member of her own pass in a traumatic way, and she wants things to be different for other people. Callie later dies in the hospital from her injuries without the assistance of Evan. Glad he at least didn’t get to have the satisfaction of getting her twice. While watching the news Evan sees a picture of Alyssa. He instantly becomes drawn to her and starts looking into her. I got a creepy feeling from this for sure. Back with Alyssa at the station she and her team start looking into some other disappearances and murders to see if there could be some type of connection. It seems like a lot of the women went missing, and were found dead, badly beaten, and bound, like Callie was. The bodies were spread out and there seemed to be no connection to the women other than a few physical similarities in some of them. Alyssa brings the finding to her captain to see what he thinks and he agrees these killings all need to be looked into as a potential connection. Makes me sad to think of how many other women had to deal with Evan and his craziness.

We get a look at Evan and a bit of his past. It’s clear he dealt with some shit as a kid and had to constantly protect himself. Something as well about a young boy going missing so I wondered if Evan may be a boy who went missing in the past or something. Explains his poor social skills. We also learn that Alyssa’s so connected to Callie’s case because her little brother went missing and was found dead when they were children. She blames herself for his disappearance/ death and that seems to be her drive to help others. It’s clear that this still affects Alyssa even though she’s an adult now and logically knows she couldn’t have done anything different to save her brother. She feels like she failed to save her brother Timmy and Callie. This made me sad for Alyssa as it’s clear her coping mechanism for things is to take on the blame so she can punish herself internally.

We find out that Evan is following Alyssa around and keeping watch of her house. Ever since seeing her on TV he has become obsessed with her, and her family. At work, Alyssa receives a call that a print for Hunter Jenkins was found on the outside of Callie’s car. This is puzzling as he was an older gentleman so it seemed strange that he would be able to overpower a much younger woman than him. Nonetheless, they needed to speak to him again. We find that Evan is able to jimmy Alyssa’s lock and get into her home while everyone is away (no alarm system or anything? Seems odd for these days). He almost gets caught when Brock goes back to the home to get something. Evan continues to snoop through the home once he’s left and it’s clear that photos of Alyssa are creating a reaction in him.

Back with Alyssa Hunter Jenkins has apparently moved out of his apartment in the last few days. This is really strange but they can’t seem to conclude why/ how he would be taking women. At home that night Alyssa’s daughter tells her that she saw someone being weird in the neighbourhood and hanging around an abandoned house near theirs. Alyssa doesn’t seem to worry much but it’s clear her daughter Holly was seeing Evan. They eventually find out that Hunter Jenkins died many years ago and that someone had stolen/ assumed his identity. When Alyssa gets this news she’s home at a random time. When she gets the news and leaves we find out that Evan has been hiding in the house the whole time. Evan finds a photo album when he’s in the home and it elicits some reaction in him so he takes it with him when he eventually leaves the house again.

Alyssa finds out that they may have some possible DNA on Callie which would be helpful since they are now chasing an unknown man. When they watch the surveillance tapes back they find that Hunter Jenkins is moving weirdly, almost as though he’s more elderly than he actually is. There are a few times in the video when he slips up on his act. They wonder if he’s maybe more able-bodied than they presumed so it really could be possible he took these women. We get a flashback from Evan in the past and it’s clear this father was a terrible person. He ‘adopted’ young boys and then would torture and kill them. He would tell the boys he adopted them but really he was kidnapping them. However, Evans was the only one who withstood staying alive so I wondered if this was because Evan was his biological child and not a child he kidnapped. This part made me sad but I also really felt no sympathy for Evan. You can’t get sympathy if you turn your trauma into hurting other people. Eventually, when Evan got old enough and his father Carl got old enough he killed him. My guess was he essentially took over the torture chamber after this time and started to bring his own victims into there instead of himself and the other boys being in there. A way of taking his power back I guess.

When Evan opens up the album he took from Alyssa and looks into his further he goes into a blind rage. I wondered why that would be if it was a jealousy thing. We find out though that this was an album from the past. It brings up such a big feeling for Evan because he is looking at a younger him in the album. Timmy, Alyssa’s younger brother who went missing and then was found dead was not dead, he just had a new name. I honestly wondered if this was where the book was going. I mean it made sense that the death of Alyssa’s brother would bring up emotions when she worked on Callie’s case but it didn’t make the most sense. I wondered if it was being brought up so much for another reason. I was definitely blown away though to find out Evan was Timmy. It also made sense he didn’t remember anything since he was quite young when he was taken and had dealt with a lot of trauma as a child. Seeing the album reminded him of who he once was and how he ended up with Carl. Carl told the boys that they were with him because their families didn’t want them. The boys would believe this and think that their families hated them, and would eventually fully push them from their minds. It seems like Evan lasted the longest though because Carl was able to get him to conform and mould to what he wanted the most. The other boys weren’t this obedient which would lead to their eventual deaths. I felt bad for Timmy at this moment but not for Evan. It’s clear the two are different people and it would be unfair to say Timmy was Evan. Timmy didn’t get the opportunity to form into the person he was supposed to be, there was only Evan. It’s clear Evan blames Alyssa for letting Timmy get taken since she was supposed to be keeping an eye on him. Now Evan wants revenge on her, and to make her feel like he did.

Evan creates a plan and goes into motion to kidnap Alyssa’s 14-year-old, Isaac. Evan tricks Isaac out of the house by pretending to be an officer who is there to get him to take him to the hospital since Alyssa was in a bad accident. Isaac is in a fury of panic and seeing a man in uniform goes with him. Eventually, he realizes that the officer is not who he says he is and is not taking him to the hospital. Evan tells Isaac that he is doing this because of his mother and is essentially using Isaac as bait to bring Alyssa to him. He has created the perfect torture chamber for her and waits for her arrival. Look I know everyone wants to say that they would have been smarter than Isaac in this situation but legitimately at 14 I am not sure I would have been. I may have been a bit more sceptical but you also just don’t so naturally think the worst in that way, or most people don’t. You can’t blame him for being naive, and also the officer knew his name, his mom’s, and his family, I would have thought it was all legit too. Isaac is obviously panicking once he realizes what is happening, but Evan has the power over him. Alyssa and her family go into panic mode when they don’t find him at home later. Alyssa worries but also doesn’t think that it’s connected to the case she’s working on yet.

Alyssa really goes into mama bear mode at this point and I had to respect her for it for sure. She does understand though that she has to keep an arm’s length away while they try to find Isaac because she could hurt the investigation by being involved. Again respect her, because often in these books if something personal happens to the detective they forget all protocol and that they could completely get the investigation thrown out by being involved. At least Alyssa is the type of character to know and respect her limits. With Evan, Isaac realizes that if he does what Evan wants he can be watched less, and given more ‘privilege’s’ like having body parts untied. Then in an accident, Alyssa’s daughter sees a picture of Hunter Jenkins. Holly freaks because Hunter is the man she has seen creeping around the neighbourhood. Alyssa starts to wonder if maybe this is connected to Callie and the killer was actually after her daughter but she’s not sure.

Evan leaves Isaac somewhat untied one time because he believes that Isaac is ill. During this time Isaac is able to see Evan putting in his alarm code when he thinks Isaac is asleep. Isaac knows he has to break out of here because Evan has pretty much told him that he plans to kill him and his mother once she comes looking for him. Isaac really is sick but knows he needs to take the chance now since Evan is not in the room. He puts in the code and goes. I really respected Isaac and his drive to save himself. Evan beat him and he had a fever and yet he knew he had to try to save himself. The risk was huge I mean if Evan were to get him he’d kill him so it was a huge risk. Isaac is able to get away from him and makes it to the street where he flags down a car. The car thankfully stops for him and is able to get him away before Evan gets to him. Of course, Alyssa is relieved once she hears from him. I felt so bad for Isaac because it’s clear he is very traumatized by the whole situation. No kid his age should have to go through that, and the torture of knowing the pain someone wanted to put your loved one through would also be terrible.  Evan told him his plans with his mom like the sicko he is, and that would really have messed with Isaac.

When Isaac is able to share what happened he says that it wasn’t an old man who took him, and doesn’t recognize Hunter other than the fact that he kind of resembles his grandfather. Alyssa is thrown off by this connection but kind of tosses it to the side. Isaac tells her Evan’s plans for Alyssa and it’s clear that Evan is very drawn to her for some reason. But she can’t understand why. Back with Evan, he is freaking out from losing Isaac. Freaking big time. He beats himself up physically and mentally and determines that now he needs to take the whole family. It would be more fun for him that way. It’s clear that Evan is losing his sanity because logically there would be no way he could kidnap four people, but that doesn’t occur to him. He just wants to make up for what Isaac took from him which was the opportunity to have Alyssa. Based on the things Isaac said Alyssa wonders if maybe this person is somehow connected to the death of her brother. Evan mails her back the photo album as to almost give her a clue of who he is, and that he’s been in the house.

Alyssa ends up being able to make the connection to Evan once she receives his package. She wonders how he could be connected to what happened to her brother. She’s also horrified that the sicko had been in her home but knew that he must have some sort of connection to her. She wondered if the fact that the girls resembled her in some way meant anything either. It seemed odd that this random person would have such a random drive to hurt her family. When they go to Evan’s home he isn’t there and Alyssa believes he must be going to her house then since he would often spend time there. Then the medical examiner calls Alyssa. When she became an officer her DNA was put into the database. When they ran Evan’s DNA it came back that he had a strong familial match to Alyssa. One that would be the amount for a full sibling. Obviously, this is a shock to her because her only sibling was found decaying next to his bike in the woods. Alyssa clearly presumed he may go to the house so it’s good her family isn’t there and is at her husband’s mother’s. Alyssa hopes to find Timmy at her home herself. When they come face to face it’s clear Evan hates her and her family. Alyssa is confused about how he could believe that they didn’t want him and that they gave him to Carl. Also, how he could think torturing people would make anything better. The confusion is also as to whose body they found in the woods with his things. Evan tells her it was another boy Carl took. Carl clearly took a liking to Evan because he listened well and followed what he wanted. That’s the only reason he survived. Alyssa is brokenhearted seeing her brother in this way. She is able to outsmart him and take him into custody. During the interview, Evan seems to have no understanding that what he’s done is wrong and that the way he grew up wasn’t okay. He still resents Alyssa and blames her for everything. Alyssa tries to speak with him but it amounts to nothing, he’s so stuck in the world he has created in his head that he can’t see the real one. Alyssa clearly feels a bit of sympathy for him but she knows that it’s not an excuse for him to hurt the people he did. She knows he won’t ever be the Timmy she knew and will forever be Evan.

I kind of hated the last part of the book. They go to trial and at the trial, Rafe shoots Evan and kills him. I don’t know why it just felt like a lame ending to a great story. I would have been happy if it was just left with Alyssa leaving the interview knowing that Timmy wasn’t ever going to come back. I am not sure why Charly decided to end it this way. I mean on one side I see that it’s almost like Timmy is finally being put to rest, he no longer has to stay in the mind and body of a sick man. On the other side, however, it feels like Evan got the easy way out. He was never forced to sit and face what he had done and why he did it. It made me sad too because it was almost like Timmy died never really knowing that his family loved him because Evan was still in the lead feeding him the poison. I wished Timmy had been given the opportunity to maybe come back out, I mean I believe he could have still been in there but now we will never know. More importantly, Alyssa will never know.

All in all despite the last few chapters I really enjoyed the book. I found the dynamics and twists of the story to be really enjoyable. Charly’s ability to create such vivid characters and relationships made it easier to dive deeply into the story.

I hope you enjoyed this review and I would love to know what you thought of the book if you’ve read it. Feel free to connect on my Instagram @baddiebookreviews to be kept up to date for when I drop a new review!