Tropical Delusions……

FBI Agent Shannon Ames is heading home to upstate NY from NYC to see her family, when she’s forced to make an unscheduled stop due to a raging winter storm. Finding a car on the side of the road, she finds a dead body beside it, with a bullet hole readily visible. Heading further into town hoping to call for help she stops at a gas/convenience store only to find another body and a frightened clerk, Nick, huddled in the back room of the store. 

Chloe Bixby, Nick’s girlfriend, is babysitting for a neighbors three young children when a strange vehicle drives into the yard. Unsure of who it might be, she opens the door, only for a man to force his way inside. Trying her best to protect the three children in her charge, she attempts to placate the man, who seems to be waiting…for what? 

As Shannon attempts to call in local and state police for assistance, she learns that all roads leading into and out of Long Lake are blocked, due to inclement weather and accidents, and that she’s on her own. A quick look at the video tapes in the store let Shannon know she’s looking for two men – but why did they shoot the lone shopper in the store? And where are they now? 

As Shannon works to put the pieces together, a killer is working on staying one step ahead…but she’s right on his heels and there’s nowhere to go…

This was another new discovery for me thanks to Netgalley and I was hooked from the very first page, reading it in it’s entirely today. Shannon Ames is an intelligent, likeable, no-nonsense law enforcement officer, who finds herself mired deep in secrets of a small town, but who also gives you glimpses into who she is as well. While this was my first introduction to this series, it will not be my last – I can’t wait to read more of this new (for me) series! 

I received this book as an Advance Reader Copy from #Netgalley & Inkubator Books in exchange for an objective review. 

Temperance “Tempe’ Brennan, a forensic anthropologist who splits her time between North Carolina & Montreal, is finishing up a review of a wrongful death case in Charlotte, and an elderly woman is patiently sitting in the waiting room at the coroner’s office, hoping Tempe can help her solve an old mystery. Meanwhile a hurricane is bearing down on the Carolina’s as Tempe rushes to get home to secure her residence and soothe Birdie, her cat.  

While conducting hurricane clean up, then heading to the coast to assist her friend Anne with the same, Tempe receives a call from the Charleston, SC County coroner, asking for her assistance.  Apparently during the storm, a plastic container washed ashore and was found to contain two bodies, wrapped in plastic and bound with electrical wire – the tableau eerily similar to a case of Tempe’s from Montreal several years ago.  Joining the investigative team for the autopsy the next morning, Tempe also gets a look at an unusual illness that seems to be spreading in Charleston, seemingly passed to humans from their pets. As they begin work on the bodies from the container, Tempe again feels déjà vu due to the similarity in these cases. 

As Tempe vows to identify these current victims, she forms an unlikely alliance with the investigating detective from Charleston, and her lover Andrew Ryan is able to find and send her the files on the Montreal deaths. More certain than ever that the cases are somehow related, Tempe returns to Montreal with a plan to exhume to bodies – in hopes that advances in DNA and consumer use of ancestry sites will allow them to finally identify the past victims. Within a few days, Tempe gets a call telling her that that the one of the bodies from Charleston is related to one from Montreal. 

As both investigations ramp up into high gear, connections are made to a Canadian Vaccine Manufacturer and a DNA Service. As Tempe keeps digging, slowly putting pieces together, she soon finds her own life in peril, as someone will stop at nothing to keep her from the truth…

This has probably been my most favorite Brennan novel yet! My interest was captured immediately, and I found the story to be fast-paced, suspenseful and difficult to put down, Filled, as always, with intrigue from the scientific world, along with the amazing advances in DNA technology, I found it very relevant and educational with regard to challenges facing the world today. While filled with scientific information, the author does a great job in explaining it in terms a layperson can understand, surrounded by a fascinating story. Well worth the read!! 

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

MacKenzie ‘Mac’ Laughlin is a former police officer, who left the small River Glenn police force due to her mother’s cancer diagnosis and the constant, unwanted, advances from her boss, the Police Chief. Still drifting along, trying to decide where she wants her life to go, she finds herself intrigued when an acquaintance, Bibi, asks for her assistance in locating a missing friend. Rayne has been missing for a week, and while she’s been trying to dodge a rent payment, this disappearance is uncharacteristic for her. Bibi knows that Rayne was secretively seeing someone, and suspects that Rayne’s ex, a bad boy named Seth, may be responsible. 

While on an initial stakeout of Seth, Mac runs into Jesse James Taft, a local PI, who also appears to be watching Seth. When Mac asks questions, Taft is evasive, but the two exchange numbers, meet for an impromptu dinner, and soon enter a partnership of sorts to assist one another.  Jesse is well into discovering a drug running operation, and Mac’s assistance is invaluable. 

Meanwhile, the killer, identified as Chas, decides that Bibi too, has to go. Fearful of that Rayne might have revealed about him, he ambushes her in her garage, beating her severely, before devising a way to make it look accidental. As the investigation into the deaths of the two friends continues, Chas sets his sights on some other potential victims – one of whom is Mac…

The premise of this book is good – a beleaguered teen who grows up exacting revenge on his tormentors, and in the spur of the moment, a killer is born. I struggled with a lot of the introductions and dialogue as characters were introduced – it didn’t flow all that well for me and at times I had a bit of trouble following the story and which character went where – the assisted living versus the fitness place, etc. I very much enjoyed the characters of Mac and Jesse and hope to see them together in future endeavors as they are quite likeable.

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

Mason Reed is a K9 handler who teaches his dogs to sniff out human remains. He has a small crew of talented animals, but golden retriever Vira is a standout – she alone can detect and remember the scent of a killer – a talent that very few people are privy to. Officer Kippy Gimm is one of those people, and she’s summoned Mace & Vira to the scene of a brutal murder, where a well-known musician has been found dead in his kitchen. As Vira walks the scene under the pretense to look for drugs, when Mace & Vira catch a quick glimpse of the body, they see evidence of a brutal assault. Ushered off the scene, he can only hope Vira was able to catch a scent. 

Later, when a search for missing Special Prosecution Bureau member Peter Feist culminates in his body being found in a nearby park, the victim of a brutal killing, Vira alerts Mason to the killer almost immediately during a chance meeting, opening up a big can of worms, as Vira has just implicated one of the cities’ highest-ranking officials in the murder. Vira’s behavior has also set the killer’s sights on Mason…

Mason, Kippy & Kippy’s partner “Wabs” regroup with this newfound knowledge, to decide how to best proceed. When a meeting with a city official goes goes unexpectedly awry, Mason & Kippy find themselves framed for a number of crimes and fleeing for their very lives with the dogs. In an effort to find the information that got Peter Feist killed, they head to his mountain cabin in hopes of finding some incriminating info. But someone else is heading that way as well. Can Mason & Kippy find what they need to put the killer away? Or will the killer find them first??

This was a great read! It was a bit slow to start for me, but once I had a feel for the characters, and things started happening, the book moved at dizzying speed, in an edge-of-your-seat cat and mouse game between Mason & the killer whom Vira inadvertantly identifies.  I like the character development I see in Mason, and I am elated to see that Kippy is going to give him a chance. The dogs, particularly Vira, are front line characters in their own right, and I will be anxious to ‘see’ them again as well. If you love dogs, and enjoy the Ryder Creed, Mercy Carr and/or Meg Jennings K9 series, you’ll love Mason Reid as well! 

I received this book as an Advance Reader Copy from #Netgalley & St. Martins Press/Minotaur Books in exchange for an objective review.  Do you love to read?? Visit Netgalley.com and start reviewing books today!!