Well, at a certain point enough dead bodies are enough for raising the stakes. Quite frankly, I was surprised he was released so easily every time he happened to find the victim (refraining from plot spoiling details here). It was like, really? The police aren't even going to consider he might be an exceptionally brazen serial killer who makes all his victims look like suicides, then brazenly happens to discover the body? I know, I said brazen twice. The sequel gets even a bit more implausible...mixing the supernatural and detective novels is fine, but I am tough on works that don't follow their own internal logic. Anyway, if the third one is inexpensive or cheap I'll give it a shot...the writing is good, it is just there are a few too many implausible plot points, and some inconsistent characterization.