Waiting on Wednesday – Endgame by Sarah Barrie

Welcome to my weekly segment, Waiting on Wednesday, where I look at upcoming books that I am planning to order and review in the next few months and which I think I will really enjoy. I run this segment in conjunction with the Can’t-Wait Wednesday meme that is currently running at Wishful Endings. Stay tuned to see reviews of these books when I get a copy of them. For this latest Waiting on Wednesday, I look at an epic upcoming Australian thriller that is bound to get very dark, with Endgame by Sarah Barrie.

Endgame Cover

Amazon

I have a lot of love for complex reads by my fellow Australians, and boy have there some great Australian crime fiction series coming out in recent years. One of my absolute favourites has been the Lexi Winter series by impressive Australian author Sarah Barrie. A dark and compelling crime fiction series, the Lexi Winter books follow the titular protagonist whose childhood was destroyed by a murderous paedophile. Growing up rough, Lexi became a talented hacker and vigilante, who targeted suspected child abusers. The first book in the series, Unforgiven, saw Lexi team up with several intriguing police characters when the man who ruined her life once again began killing young children. Unforgiven was an extremely awesome and captivating novel, that effortlessly blended powerful character work with a dark thriller scenario that kept me on my toes the entire way through. This ended up being one of my favourite Australian books of 2021, and I deeply enjoyed it.

Due to how good Unforgiven was, I ended up grabbing the next two books in the series the second they came out. Made up of Retribution (one of my favourite Australian books of 2022) and Vendetta (one of my favourite Australian books of 2023), the Lexi Winter series went in some very interesting directions as Lexi attempted to make the jump from vigilante to legitimate police officer, while also facing off against criminals and demons from her past. Both sequels were extremely compelling and exciting, and I have had so much fun with this great Australian series.

Naturally, I am very eager to see how this series is going to come to an end, and it looks like Barrie is about to put the finishing touches on her captivating story, with the upcoming book Endgame. Billed as the fourth and final entry in the series, Endgame will force the protagonist to go up against her nemesis in a final game of cat and mouse that will destroy everyone around her. Set for release in late October 2024, Endgame sounds extremely cool, and you can see that Barrie is going to bring the emotional pain to her readers in this finale.

Plot Synopsis:

Vigilante turned cop Lexi Winter is drawn into the investigation of a chain of apparently random murders. As the bodies pile up, Lexi realises she is a pawn in a psychotic – and deadly – game.

Lexi Winter is studying for her detective exams but her nemesis Vaughn is out there somewhere and her concentration is fractured. Just as she’s wondering if her hypervigilance is tipping over into madness, Vaughn resurfaces and issues a challenge. Five people will be dead by the end of the month. If Lexi can identify and save the last one before the deadline, he’ll turn himself in.

As Lexi’s colleagues scramble to untangle what it all means, Lexi is implicated deeper and deeper into the murders. On top of this, she begins to see a strange figure everywhere she goes. Branded as suffering from PTSD, Lexi’s credibility is in tatters with her colleagues, but Lexi knows it isn’t her mind that is the problem. A wicked game is afoot, and Lexi is just a chess piece in play – and she suspects that check mate will mean her death. There is only one thing that Lexi can do – play along, wait for the chance to strike back, and bring about the endgame…

Now this sounds like a very epic addition to the series as Barrie is definitely planning to end this story on a very dark note, which I am very there for. A violent game of cat and mouse between the series’ big bad and a traumatised protagonist is an extremely strong basis for a story, and you have to know that Barrie is going to really dive into the dark side of Lexi’s mind in Endgame. Having the protagonist once again isolated from all the new friends and connections she has made as they lose faith in her sanity is going to be very hard to watch, but I am confident that it will lead to a great overall story.

I have no doubt whatsoever that Endgame is going to be an extremely awesome piece of Australian crime fiction. Sarah Barrie has been absolutely killing it with her Lexi Winter books the last couple of years, and this dark conclusion she has been building towards is going to be epic. I am even more excited for Endgame after the above plot synopsis, and this may end up being one of the most compelling and emotionally charged novels I read this year.