Month: February 2021

The holidays are fast approaching and Joanna Brady’s eldest daughter, Jennifer is finishing up her term Northern Arizona University. Jenny’s roommate Beth is a freshman, and still new to campus life, having led a rather sheltered existence at home where her domineering parents shun all things technological. But on campus, she quickly takes advantage of all technology has to offer, purchasing a smart phone and computer, and finds herself a boyfriend on a dating site. After a huge row with her parents during Thanksgiving break, Beth has no intentions of returning home for the holidays, and Jenny invites her to spend Christmas at the Brady Ranch. 

Meanwhile, Joanna has just received word that one of her long time deputies is set to retire for medical reasons, and another has just been shot and badly wounded while trying to serve a protective order. Pushing Jenny and her roommate to the back of her mind, she sets out to check on her deputy and to visit the crime scene, only to learn that her nemesis, Deputy Dave Newton of the DPS has been assigned to investigate the officer-involved shooting, effectively removing Joanna form the investigation.  As her deputy fights for his life in a Tucson hospital, Joanna calls in favors as she and her team try to quietly discover what really happened at the scene… 

Back in Flagstaff, Jenny & Beth prepare for finals, and Beth tries to balance her school life with her security cyber expert boyfriend, Ron Cameron, who has to call her late at night because of his super-secret job in DC.  As their phone relationship grows, he convinces her to send nude photos of herself. Then after a strange argument, she breaks it off with him, only to begin receiving lurid texts from both strangers and classmates. In horror, she learns that Ron has somehow shared those private pictures with hundreds of people. 

As Jenny helps Beth pick up the pieces, Joanna learns of the situation and gets the FBI involved. But this predator is still watching the girls, determined to destroy Beth for defying him – and now he has his sights set on Jenny as well…

I have read (to my knowledge, anyway) every book that JA Jance has written, so I was delighted when William Morrow/Harpers Collins selected me to receive an advance reader copy of her latest Joanna Brady novel. I settled in eagerly to read, and as always, Ms Jance does not disappoint! This one kept me up well into the night, and I was determined to finish it in one sitting! If you’re a fan of her series, this book will not disappoint – and if you’re new to her writings, this is a great place to start, as each can be read as a stand-alone.  Bet ya can’t read just one though!! 

Olivia Grant is a foreign exchange student from England, who winds up in rainy Port Gamble, Washington, far removed from the Hollywood type people she had hoped to meet. On the fateful night that opens this novel, she’s attending a Halloween party at the home of Brianna Connors, while Brianna’s Dad is out of town. Feeling a bit under the weather from whatever she’s consumed, she curls up in Brianna’s bed to take a nap, only to wake to find an assailant standing over her, quickly becoming a homicide victim. 

Taylor & Hayley Ryan, twin sisters with very unique extrasensory abilities, are both awakened by the sense that something is very wrong. As they communicate their concerns with one another telepathically, they both agree that they hadn’t felt something like this in quite a while. It’s not until the next day that they receive a text message from their friend Beth, providing them with the shocking details of Olivia’s stabbing. 

When Annie Garnett, the local police chief, arrives on the scene, she’s astonished at the lack of empathy displayed by the spoiled, rich Brianna Connors and her equally spoiled boyfriend Drew, as they lament their party being spoiled by a murder. She’s also disgusted when she receives word of Brianna & Drew being seen shopping at Victoria’s Secret the day after the murder. Brianna is also using the murder to boost her own notoriety on social media.  Then, Brianna and Drew disappear. Meanwhile, a class assignment has the twins digging through boxes of old family photos, where they find old newspaper clippings that tell a very different story of past events that what they’ve come to know…

As Taylor & Hayley do their own investigating into events, both past and present, they begin receiving texts from an unknown person they deem ‘Text Creeper’. Emboldened by their discoveries, they plan to meet ‘Text Creeper’ in a public setting, instead they end up fleeing for their lives – but at the same time, the girls make a startling discovery…

As with all of Brian Olsen’s books, this one grabbed my attention from the first page and didn’t let me go, with me frantically flipping pages into the early AM hours. I’ve read many of his novels over the years but had totally missed this one – and the one that precedes it, which reportedly involves many of these same characters. This is be easily read as a standalone, especially if you don’t know otherwise! But, I’ll be heading to Amazon to check out the twins past exploits in just a second!  

I received this book as an Advance Reader Copy from Netgalley, in exchange for an objective review.  Do you love to read?? Visit netgalley.com and start reviewing books today!!