I’m four books into Rebecca Zanetti’s Laurel Snow series and have loved each one even more than the last. You Can Kill is another thrilling nail-biter.

With each story, we learn a little more about Laurel and her world. You Can Run introduced Laurel and Huck, and her crazy-ass secret sister Abigail. You Can Hide gave us a broader view of Laurel’s extended family in Genesis Valley. You Can Die served up her father, a sociopathic pastor with a penchant for less than reverent practices. And now, with You Can Kill, we circle back around to Huck and the darker side of his family.

When last we left Laurel and Huck, they’d discovered they were going to be parents. For two people who clearly love each other, yet struggle with joyful, open affection, it was an … adjustment. This book picks up while Laurel’s still in her first trimester, and the killer on the loose is one she’s already put away. Of course she’s driven to recapture him, but there’s the baby to consider. And what if the team finds out she’s pregnant? She’ll be pulled off the case before the close of business that day. Danger, as usual, surrounds the fine folks in Genesis Valley and it reminds me that life in the Pacific Northwest is dangerous. Snow and blizzards will drive you crazy, y’all.

In every instalment of this series, the stakes are high, the pace is breakneck, and the violence brutal. When these killers snap, they do it big. Laurel and Huck are in the crosshairs, but they also now face the uncertainty and fear of parenthood, estranged parents circling back around, and the prospect of genetic traits. When you’re a high-functioning genius with a Type-A personality, it’s not easy to rely on anybody else, but Laurel’s worked hard over the series to integrate into her office and open herself to relationships. It’s very, very satisfying to follow her character arc.

My only negative, really, is that I’m not a fan of long series with the same protagonists, because their interations become… same-y. On the one hand, I feel like I already know Laurel and Huck intimately; their hopes and fears, their quirks and the buttons they push with each other. But on the other, Zanetti continues to surprise and enlighten me. Laurel and Huck are dynamic (and dynamite) characters. They’re strong and vulnerable and intelligent and earthy. They’re the cavalry I want to imagine keeping the world safe and holding the monsters at bay.

If you love a reliable cast of characters from an author who hits her mark every single time, then another Laurel Snow book is in the cards for you. Read You Can Kill with the lights on, and if you can find one, your own big, burly Fish & Wildlife officer by your side.