"Got you..."
Crimes of Passion is about a detective and their partner hunting down a Serial Killer who is part of an evil cult. Needless to say, there are some scary moments.- The opening scene when Decoy Protagonist Sonja wakes up to find she's been kidnapped by a masked figure. She seemingly escapes his clutches... only to run into a dead end, the Killer rises behind her and drugs her.
- Her death scene at the end of Chapter 1 is brutal, being hung up by her wrists from the ceiling WITH HER HEART CUT OUT.
- The end of Chapter 2, when the Killer's sinister motives are revealed. He's cutting people's hearts out and giving them to the goddess he worships. He promises that the first heart he gives will be "the first of many", suggesting that more people are going to meet the same fate as poor Sonja. Because of this, he has come to be known as the "Heartache Killer" since Chapter 11.
- Chapter 5 has the Killer burn down a mansion during a party (putting countless people at risk) before escaping. One of the partygoers was pinned under a bookshelf and would have likely burned to death if it wasn't for Trystan.
- Chapter 12 has quite an amount of it. Cameron and Trystan find an important witness being held captive by the Killer in an old abandoned mansion, then a fight ensues when the Killer discovers them... worst of all, he stabs Trystan before escaping again.
- The end of Chapter 14, in which Marguerite is kidnapped by an unknown assailant. She screams, and the line goes dead, forcing Cameron and Trystan to hightail it to Trystan's apartment. What's even more chilling is, at this point, the killer has been arrested, so whoever the kidnapper is must have been the Big Bad all along...
- Chapter 15. What an absolute heart-pounder this one is. The chapter opens with an ominous warning that Marguerite's fate will depend on the choices you make. Cameron and Trystan return to the latter's apartment to find a burner phone, which they use to speak to the kidnapper. The kidnapper demands that Tony (the killer whom Cameron and Trystan have been after the entire book) be smuggled out of his cell in 30 minutes, or Marguerite dies. While she doesn't die, the threat looms overhead for most of the chapter, and they reach Tony with only seconds left. Mess up too many choices, and Marguerite gets a finger chopped off. The chapter ends with the kidnapper's identity revealed, the mastermind, the true Big Bad, as they unmask themselves in a chilling cutscene.
- The flashback to Eleanor's childhood in Chapter 16 where she (despite being just a child at the time) witnessed the death of her parents and the woman they planned to sacrifice. The woman in particular burns alive right in front of Eleanor, complete with her skin blistering and peeling. Then there's the absolutely bone-chilling scream she makes.
- Book 2 begins with a flashback to Juliana's murder. She hears a bird call while on the yacht with Trystan (who is fast asleep), goes out onto the deck and comes face to face with a hooded figure. She implores them to leave her alone, but the mysterious figure refuses to listen and pushes her overboard as she screams for her future spouse.Mysterious Figure: But I finally found a way we can get everything we always wanted...(reaches a gloved hand out)Juliana: TRYSTAN! (cue bloodcurdling scream)
- Book 2, Chapter 6 introduces Patryk Thorne, a Bad Influencer with a sadistic sense of humor. He sees nothing wrong with livestreaming a murder, and he poisons Cameron's wine at dinner as a sick joke. Though the poison wasn't meant to kill them, just give them Potty Failure, it could have easily done so if he got the dosage wrong and Cameron hadn't detected the poison in time.
- Book 2, Chapter 12 ends with a gory shot of Sebastyan with his throat having been slashed.
