UNSUB (An UNSUB Novel Book #1) by Meg Gardiner is the gripping first book in this crime thriller series that I am late to the party reading, but better late than never. This story introduces readers to the series protagonist, Caitlin Hendrix as a detective, before she joins the FBI’s Behavioral Unit.
In the 1990’s, the San Francisco Bay area was terrorized by a serial killer known as the Prophet. Caitlin’s father was the lead investigator on the case, and it destroyed his mental health and marriage. Caitlin still has nightmares from that time but has grown to be an investigator like her father.
Now, twenty years later, the Prophet has returned and is determined to begin again where he left off and he is excited to pull Caitlin into the case, to destroy her as he did her father. This is Caitlin’s first major case, and she is determined to decipher the Prophet’s twisted poems and messages and stop the carnage. While her father and mother warn her away from this case, Caitlin believes she can stop the killer and avoid the mistakes her father made, but can she catch the Prophet before he destroys her?
This is an edge-of-your-seat, cat and mouse thriller that I could not put down, even when the descriptions of the Prophet’s kills were quite graphic. Caitlin is a complex protagonist with a background that is revealed with flashback personal information placed throughout the story. The Prophet is vicious and determined. Each encounter ramped up my anxiety and dread. Be aware, this is a serial killer thriller, so the violence is up front and in your face. All the secondary characters are believable, and you never know who will live to the end. The climax is savage and answered many questions but left a thread to follow into the next book as well as moving Caitlin to the FBI.
I highly recommend this serial killer crime thriller and cannot wait to dive into book two, Into the Black Nowhere.
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About the Author
Meg Gardiner is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of seventeen thrillers. Her latest is Shadowheart, featuring FBI profiler Caitlin Hendrix. The Real Book Spy calls it “A mind-trip of a story.” Booklist says, “As always, the writing is exquisite and the story is perfectly crafted.” UNSUB, the first novel in the series, won the 2018 Barry Award for Best Thriller. The Dark Corners of the Night was bought by Amazon Studios for development as an hour-long television drama.
Her previous novel, Heat 2, is a prequel/sequel to the film Heat, co-authored with the film’s writer/director, Michael Mann. It debuted at #1 on the NYT best seller list.
Meg is the author of the Evan Delaney series, the Jo Beckett novels, and several stand alones. China Lake won the 2009 Edgar award for Best Paperback Original. The Nightmare Thief won the 2012 Audie Award for Thriller/Suspense audiobook of the year. Phantom Instinct was one of O, the Oprah magazine’s “Best Books of Summer.”
A graduate of Stanford Law School in California, Meg practiced law in Los Angeles and taught writing at the University of California Santa Barbara. She lives in Austin, Texas.
Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for KNIFE RIVER (The Sheriff Ty Dawson Crime Thriller Series) by Baron R. Birtcher on this Partners In Crime Virtual Book Tour.
Below you will find a book description, my book review, an excerpt from the book, the author’s bio and social media links, and a Kingsumo giveaway. Enjoy!
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Book Description
A sheriff fighting to keep the peace in 1970s Oregon faces a shocking secret from his town’s past, in this crime thriller from the author of Reckoning.
There are rules in the West no matter what era you were born in, and it’s up to lawman Ty Dawson to make sure they’re followed in the valley he calls home. The people living on this unforgiving land keep to themselves and are wary of the modern world’s encroachment into their quiet lives.
So it’s not without some suspicion that Dawson confronts a newcomer to the region: a record producer who has built a music studio in an isolated compound. His latest project is a collaboration with a famous young rock star named Ian Swann, recording and filming his sessions for a movie. An amphitheater for a live show is being built on the land, giving Dawson flashbacks to the violent Altamont concert. Not on his watch.
But even beefed up security can’t stop a disaster that’s been over a decade in the making. All it takes is one horrific case bleeding its way into the present to prove that the good ol’ days spawned a brand of evil no one wants to revisit . . .
Genre: Crime Thriller Published by: Open Road Media Publication Date: April 23, 2024 Number of Pages: 338 ISBN: 9781504086523 (ISBN10: 150408652X) Series: The Sheriff Ty Dawson Crime Thriller Series
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My Book Review
RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars
KNIFE RIVER (The Sheriff Ty Dawson Crime Thriller Series) by Baron Birtcher is an intricately plotted crime thriller with buried appalling crimes and secrets from the sheriff’s small town’s past that are about to be revealed and become the cause of a horrific crime in the present. This is the fourth book in the Ty Dawson series, but each is easily read as a standalone story.
Sheriff Ty Dawson is a Korean War veteran, rancher, and sheriff in the 1970’s small town of Meridian, Oregon. Ty discovers a new music studio compound has been built outside town. A famous young rock star is recording a new album and filming his sessions. It will culminate in the filming of a live concert built in a new outdoor amphitheater. Ty does not want the headaches and crimes related to a large intrusion of outsiders, but he has no choice.
What Ty does not know is the singer has ulterior motives for picking this location and is in danger from someone who does not want crimes from the past to resurface.
This is a story that pulled me in, and I did not put the book down until the end. I enjoy that it is set in the 1970’s and I especially like the references regarding the music scene and musicians. The flashback scenes to the buried secrets were interwoven throughout the present in the story and just kept ratcheting up the tension to the climax when the two collide. Sheriff Ty Dawson is a fully developed character of moral conviction with a love of his family, friends, and town, but he is not blind to the changes happening in the world. There is just something in Mr. Birtcher’s writing style that pulls me into each book in this series and makes me believe Ty is real and could walk right off the page.
I highly recommend this exceptional crime thriller addition to the series, the entire series, and this author!
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Excerpt
Prelude:
FACING WEST
SOME SAY THAT to be born into a thing is to be blind to half of it. Oftentimes, the things we seek and discover for ourselves are those we hold most dear.
Any cattleman will tell you that a ranch is a living thing. Not only the livestock that graze the meadowland, but the blood that nourishes the hungry soil, the trees that inhale the wind, and the rain that carves runnels into the hardpan that, in time, grow into rivers. The Diamond D is no different in that respect, some would even say it was the beating heart of Meriwether County, Oregon.
As both a stockman and the sheriff of this county, I believe this to be true.
But the events that unfolded in the autumn of 1964 cast a cloud across that land. Not just across my ranch, but the entire valley, though they didn’t bear their terrible fruit until nearly a dozen years later, in the spring of 1976. The incidents still haunt me, though others paid a steeper price than I; some with their lives, or the lives of their loved ones, while some forfeit their sanity, and still others with their souls.
That is where this story begins.
CHAPTER ONE
LAMBS AND LIONS hold no sway over the springtime here in Meriwether County. Some years it will snow through mid-May, other times the golden sun rides high and bright, and the river flows fast, clear and deep with high-country melt on the first day of March. Most years, it’s both, with Mother Nature keeping her whims to herself until she alone decides to turn them loose upon us.
But this particular Saturday morning was unusually quiet, not even a breath of breeze stirring the leaves of the cottonwoods that grew thick and untamed along the creekbank. I was standing outside on the gallery, sipping my coffee as I leaned on the porch rail, watching my wife, Jesse, hammer the last nail into a birdbox she had made. She must have felt my eyes on her, as she looked up from her work and smiled. A few moments later, she stepped up the stairs to where I stood and kissed me on the cheek, smelling of sawdust and lemongrass tea.
“The bluebirds are back,” she said. “I just saw them.”
“You haven’t lost your knack for building those things.”
“Plenty of practice. You got home late last night.”
I had spent the previous day transporting a man all the way from Lewiston up to the Portland lockup to await his trial. He stood accused of murdering his own wife and young child. It had been a long, depressing day, and by the time I completed the intake paperwork, locked up the substation in Meridian, and finally drove home to the ranch, Jesse was already asleep.
But this morning, everything in her expression seemed overflowing with hope and expectation. Springtime was her season and always had been.
“Want a hand putting that thing up?” I asked.
She replied by handing it to me, together with the hammer.
She watched me hang the birdbox on a post beside the vegetable garden, outside the kitchen window where I knew she’d spend her quiet mornings secretly observing the bluebirds as they built their nest and reared their brood.
“You plan on helping Caleb pick the new cowboys today?” She asked me when I came back inside.
It was the time of year when we hired a few temporary hands for Spring Works, when we’d round-up the cattle and calves from every corner of the ranch; we’d vet, brand and sort the livestock, and mend a perpetual string of breaks in the wire along miles of fenceline before we turned the herd out to the pastures for summer grazing. The Diamond D employed three permanent cowboys in addition to me and old Caleb Wheeler—our foreman for more than three decades—but with 63,000 deeded acres and another 14,000 under a Land Management lease, Spring Works was more work than the five of us could handle in the short span of time required to get it done. Every year a couple dozen hopeful itinerant riders, ropers, rodeo bums and saddle-tramps would answer the call for a temporary employment opportunity, and every year Caleb Wheeler got more riled up about what he viewed as the eroding quality of the contemporary American cowboy. He’d cuss and grump and holler about it, but he’d end up settling on three or four hands he reckoned could help us get the job done with a minimum of aggravation.
“I’m staying out of it this year,” I said, and Jesse grinned. “Figured I’d lay in a cord or two for the woodshed instead, before the weather gets too hot.”
“I saw some deadfall down by Corcoran’s,” she said.
“That’s where I was headed.”
“Make you some lunch to take with you?”
“I don’t intend to be out that long.”
“Good to hear,” she said, and winked at me before she turned, and stepped inside the house.
* * *
HALF AN HOUR later I was straddling a fallen spruce, angling the chainsaw to buck the trunk into three-foot rounds that I’d later split into quarters with the long-handled axe. The solitary labor, the sweat staining my shirt, and the burn down deep inside my muscles were a welcome balm after the week I’d had, and the air was rife with the smell of pine tar, sap and chain oil. I looked up and caught some movement in the distance, where the BLM forest gave onto an open range already knee deep with wildflowers and whipgrass. I recognized Tom Jenkins’ roping horse moving hellbent-for-leather across the flats, with young Tom leaning across her withers, one hand on the reins and the other holding his hat in place on top of his head. His mount was an admirable animal, a grullo Quarter Horse that stood nearly seventeen hands, fast and thick through the chest. Tom Jenkins handled her well, and he was beelining in my direction like he had something on his mind.
I killed the power on the chainsaw and set it in the bed of the military surplus jeep I use when I do ranch work, stepped over to the fence and took a splash of water from the canteen I’d hung in the shade of a young cedar. I didn’t have to wait long before Tom pulled up in a skidding stop inside a cloud of dust, throwing a cascade of torn earth and pebbles through the barbed strands of the wire.
“Mr. Dawson,” he said and touched a finger to his hat brim, sounding nearly as breathless as his horse. “I was hoping that was you.”
“What are you doing out here all by yourself?” I asked, but suspected I already knew the answer.
When I’d first met Tom Jenkins, he was nothing but a kid with a limp handshake, no eye-contact, and the familiar slope-shouldered gait and posture of the typical aimless teenaged slacker. At that time, he’d been well on his way to serious trouble, the variety and scope of which would have landed him in a six-by-eight jail cell where the other inmates would have eaten him alive.
He is the nephew of my neighbor to the south of me, Snoose Corcoran, whose sister had sent the kid up here from California’s central valley to his uncle’s ranch in southeastern Oregon in hopes of putting some distance between young Tom and his unquestionably poor choices of acquaintances. Ill-equipped to deal with the boy himself, Snoose begged me to take the kid on as a maverick, and I’d reluctantly agreed. After six months working side by side with trail hardened cowboys on the Diamond D young Tom Jenkins’ attitude had been readjusted, straightening both his spine and fortitude. Now, at barely 18 years of age, Tom had assumed the reins of the floundering Corcoran cattle operation from his uncle Snoose, who had been gradually disappearing into a bottle.
“Cow and a calf went missing from my place,” Tom answered. “Fence busted by the westward line, and I figured them two mighta headed for the water.”
My ranch hands ended up nicknaming the kid “Silver,” after he’d astonished us all by stepping up and winning a silver buckle for the Diamond D in the team roping event at the annual rodeo. I knew Tom secretly treasured the handle they’d bestowed, wore it like a medal, but I never spoke it; that was between my men and him.
“Where’s your uncle?” I asked.
His shrug spoke sorrowful volumes.
“So, what set you hightailing over here to see me, son?” I asked. “What’s the trouble? Besides the missing beeves.”
“I was up there on the other side of the tree line,” he said. He twisted sideways in his saddle, took off his hat and gestured with it toward a distant stretch of blue sky. “There was an eagle making low passes over the meadow, so I stopped to watch it for a minute. It was so still and quiet out there, I could hear the eagle calling out while it was gliding on the thermals.”
“You don’t see something like that every day,” I said. “Not even out here in the boondocks.”
“No sir, that’s a fact,” Tom said. “But, while I sat there watching that creature flying, all of a sudden and out of nowhere, a helicopter come buzzing across the ridge, you know the one…”
“Big stone bluff, looks like somebody cut it down the middle with a KA-BAR knife.”
“That’s the one,” he said. “Well, that chopper came in fast, and went straight toward that bird…” The young man’s voice trailed off, his face contorted like he’d encountered a foul odor. “They circled it as it flew, like they were teasing it. Two men inside the—whattaya call it?”
“Cockpit.”
“Yeah, the cockpit. Then they started closing in on him, chasing it. The guy in the passenger seat had a rifle in his hands. I could see the barrel sticking out.”
What Tom was describing to me was not only a despicable and loathsome act, it was a serious crime. The mere harassment of a protected species is a federal offense; hunting and killing one merely for the sick thrill of it was another matter entirely.
“What happened, Tom?”
He swallowed drily, shook his head and looked down at the ground between us.
“He shot that bird right out of the sky, sir,” he said. “That eagle wasn’t even doing nothing, just gliding circles on the wind, and those assholes—sorry, sir—they shot him cold dead.”
I could imagine the creature’s confused and lonely cry as it spiraled down, bleeding, terrified and helpless, to the earth.
“You pretty sure about the location, Tom?”
“About four, five miles thataway, near the bluff, where the river makes that sharp bend to the south.”
“Did you get a look at either of the men?”
“Naw, they were too far away and moving pretty fast. But I got a good look at the whirlybird.”
I asked him for a description of the helicopter, and I knew right away he was referring to a Bell H-13, known to soldiers as a “Sioux.” They’d been in common use as scouting and medical evacuation aircraft by the military. I’d seen them every day when I was stationed in Korea.
“Like the choppers on that TV show?” I asked.
“Yes, sir. Exactly like on M*A*S*H.”
“Big glass bubble on the front? No doors? Looks kinda like a dragonfly?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Did you see any numbers written on it? On the tail? Or maybe on the underside?”
Tom Jenkins pressed his hat back on his head and gazed up at the empty sky beyond the forest, like he could return that beautiful animal to where it rightfully belonged through sheer force of his will. The high peaks beyond the meadow were streaked with deep blue shadows in the sunlight, their cloughs and gorges washed in purple and topped with snow so white it hurt your eyes.
“I’m sorry, sir,” he said. “I don’t remember seeing numbers or anything like that.”
His face took on the aspect of defeat, as though some personal failure had cost the animal its life.
“You did good, Tom. You did the right thing coming to me straight away. There was nothing else you could have done.”
He nodded once, his lips pressed tight, and he leaned down to adjust a stirrup that needed no adjustment.
“You want some help finding your cows?” I asked, thinking he might appreciate the company.
“I can do it, sir, but thank you. I can haze ’em back home on my own.”
“You gotta get eyeballs on the critters first. I can help you, son.”
“Thank you just the same, Mr. Dawson… Sheriff… Hell, I don’t even know what to call you.”
His expression softened for the first time since he’d showed up, a brief and fleeting smile, then his focus drifted far away again.
“Something else, Tom?”
“Just wondering.”
“Wondering what?”
“Do you think you can catch those guys who shot that bird?”
“I’m going to try my damndest.”
His eyes remained fixed on the horizon.
“What’ll happen to ’em if you do?”
I drew a bandana from the back pocket of my jeans, removed my hat, and dried the sweat that had been leaking from beneath the band.
“It’s been against the law to kill an eagle since the 1940s. If you’re not an Indian, you can’t even possess a single feather. If you get caught, you pay a steep fine and then they send you off to jail. If you’re a rancher, you could lose the leases on your land.”
Tom turned his gaze back on me, and I noted for the hundredth time that this young man no longer bore any resemblance to the person he had been on the day he first arrived here from California.
“That punishment don’t seem tough enough,” Tom said. “Not for what I seen ’em do.”
“No, it doesn’t.”
He clucked softly to his horse, and reined her back in the direction from which they’d come.
“I’d better get a move on,” he said.
“Be careful out there, son,” I said to his retreating back, but my words were lost in the distance.
***
Author Bio
Baron Birtcher is the LA TIMES and IMBA BESTSELLING author of the hardboiled Mike Travis series (Roadhouse Blues, Ruby Tuesday, Angels Fall, and Hard Latitudes), the award-winning Ty Dawson series (South California Purples, Fistful Of Rain, Reckoning, and Knife River), as well as the critically-lauded stand-alone, RAIN DOGS.
Baron is a winner of the SILVER FALCHION AWARD, and the WINNER of 2018’s Killer Nashville READERS CHOICE AWARD, as well as 2019’s BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR for Fistful Of Rain.
He has also had the honor of having been named a finalist for the NERO AWARD, the LEFTY AWARD, the FOREWORD INDIE AWARD, the 2016 BEST BOOK AWARD, the Pacific Northwest’s regional SPOTTED OWL AWARD, and the CLAYMORE AWARD.
Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Reviews for THREE DROWNED GIRLS (Detective Freya Sinclair Book #1) and ONE LIAR LEFT (Detective Freya Sinclair Book #2) by Emily Shiner on this Bookouture Books-on-Tour book tour.
Below you will find the book descriptions, my book reviews, the author’s bio and social media links. Enjoy!
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Book Description
When Freya Sinclair was a little girl, she had no idea what her parents were hiding in the basement of her childhood home…
After five years away from her hometown of Fawn Lake, Detective Freya Sinclair isn’t expecting a warm welcome from the people she’s sworn to protect. She became a detective to bring serial killers like her parents to justice, but the tight-knit North Carolinian community can’t see past her twisted roots.
Minutes after stepping foot back home, the body of a dark-haired young girl is pulled from the river and Freya races to the scene. She’s determined to identify the child and finally prove herself, but before Freya even has a chance to search through missing persons, another girl is reported missing.
Freya’s heart breaks at the sight of little Isa’s blonde ringlets and pristine soccer uniform in the photo her father clutches, but the look on his face says he doesn’t trust Freya. Does he think she’s just like her parents, or does he have a sinister secret of his own?
But when another innocent girl is found drowned, Freya finds a white hair ribbon snagged on a branch, and instantly recognizes it as part of the soccer team uniform at the local school…
Two drowned girls. One daughter still missing. Can Freya save Isa before she becomes the third victim? Or has the killer already set their sights on Freya next?
THREE DROWNED GIRLS (Detective Freya Sinclair Book #1) by Emily Shiner is a captivating first book in a new crime thriller/police procedural series set in small-town North Carolina. What sets this dark serial killer series apart is that the female detective protagonist’s background is as shocking and twisted as the serial killers she chases.
After five years away, Freya Sinclair returns to her hometown of Fawn Lake, NC and returns to her place in the Fawn Lake PD as Captain of the Detectives. Not everyone is happy she is back.
On her first hour back on the job, a young girl is found floating in the local river. With the help of newly promoted Det. Candy Ellinger, they begin searching for her identity because no one has reported a missing child. Before they can make any headway, another girl is reported missing. When Freya discovers another young girl dead in the river, she knows she is in a desperate race to stop a serial killer, but the killer has set their sights on Freya as she gets ever closer.
I really enjoyed meeting this new set of characters. Freya is intelligent and determined to prove she can handle returning to her job. While the author gives some information on Freya’s past with the disclosure of her parents being serial killers, there is still much we don’t know, and I liked that because this first book is more of an introduction to the characters and how they are going to work together as a team and not an info dump. This is a darker crime thriller with the serial killing of very young girls, and discussions of serious topics, but I did not feel it was overly graphic. That said, while the overall crime plot is seriously twisted, and I think unique, I did not find it realistic which diminished my overall satisfaction. I am looking forward though to learning more about Freya and her team in future books in this new series.
I recommend this engaging first book in this new crime thriller series.
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Book Description
The one killer Detective Freya Sinclair never caught is back…
High up in the mountains of Clear Creek Forest, where mist clings to the pines, the bodies of Millie Woodward and Jolie Marin are discovered by their fading campfire. Could this be the work of the notorious Fawn Lake Killer? This forest was once his hunting ground. And Freya knows the tattered, red woolen scarf wound tightly around Jolie’s neck is hiding his chilling MO. Her throat has been cut.
The one case Freya has never solved has haunted her for years. She knows the Fawn Lake Killer is organized, that he never leaves any DNA. But why did he stop, and why has he resurfaced now? Before she can even search the forest, Freya makes a heart-breaking discovery in her own backyard: the body of Annaliese Nowland, her long blonde hair fanned out in the tall grass. Annaliese’s tongue is missing. Freya knows it’s a message: he’s silencing these women. And taunting Freya.
Working day and night to make a connection, Freya finally uncovers the missing puzzle piece: a photograph of all three victims in high school together. But there’s a fourth woman in the photo, her face turned slightly away from the camera. Freya must track her down before it is too late.
Freya won’t let the past repeat itself. Did these women die because of her failure, or is she overlooking a vital clue that points to someone close to home? Freya must face her demons if she’s going to stop this predator taking another innocent life. But he’s one step ahead. And he’s coming for her…
ONE LIAR LEFT (Detective Freya Sinclair Book #2) by Emily Shiner is an intriguing second book in this exciting crime thriller/police procedural featuring Detective Freya Sinclair and her team in the small town of Fawn Lake, NC. Even though this is only the second book in the series, I personally feel it is important to read them in order.
Detective Freya Sinclair believes the notorious Fawn Lake Killer has returned when the bodies of two women are discovered around their fading campfire and another in the grasses nearby. The MO is the same and once again there is no DNA found, but why has he resurfaced again?
Working to discover a connection, Freya discovers an old high school photograph with the three victims and a fourth woman with her face slightly turned away. Freya must track this woman down before the killer or she will have failed all over again.
This book had me turning the pages from start to finish. The characters are more fully developed than in the first book, but there were a couple of times I felt Freya did things that felt off for her character in my opinion. I do look forward to continuing following and reading more about her and the entire team of secondary characters though. The pace of the crime plot continued to build to the climax at a fast clip, and there were plenty of twists and surprises that kept me on my toes. The story is suspenseful right up to the end.
I recommend this exciting addition to this crime thriller series and am looking forward to many more.
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Author Bio
Emily Shiner always dreamed of becoming an author. After spending years devouring stacks of thrillers, she decided to try her hand at writing them herself. Now she gets to live out her dream of writing novels and sharing her stories with people around the world. She lives in the Appalachian Mountains and loves hiking with her husband, daughter, and their two dogs.
Everyone has secrets, but not everyone has remorse…
A terrible accident.
Meghan Michaels is trying to find balance between being a single mom and working full time as an ICU nurse, when a patient named Caitlin arrives in her ward with a traumatic brain injury. They say she jumped from a bridge and plunged over twenty feet to the train tracks below.
A shocking revelation.
When a witness comes forward with new details about Caitlin’s fall, it calls everything they know into question. Was a crime committed? Did someone actually push Caitlin, and if so, who… and why?
No one is safe.
Meghan lets herself get close to Caitlin until she’s deeply entangled in the mystery surrounding her. Only when it’s too late, does she realize that she and her daughter could be the next victims…
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Elise’s Thoughts
She’s Not Sorry by Mary Kubica is a suspenseful thriller with a compelling twist. The characters are gripping although unreliable.
The main character is Meghan Michaels who is like any single mom, trying to find balance between working full time as an ICU nurse and being a doting mother. Now one of her patients, Caitlin Beckett, is in a coma with traumatic brain injury. As the story goes on authorities begin to question if she suicidally jumped from a bridge or was pushed.
Then there is Natalie (Nat) Cohen who Meghan runs into on the street. Nat was a high school classmate. After noticing a huge bruise on Nat’s face and having experience with abuse Meghan is worried and invites Nat to stay with her and her daughter Sienna.
Also wanting to make sure her teenage daughter is safe Meghan becomes a formidable character. Although thoughtful and caring she can become a “mama bear” if someone in her family is threatened.
As the story unveils readers see Meghan as strong but someone who has secrets that need to be kept. This is what compels readers to not want to put the book down.
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Author Interview
Elise Cooper: Did you have the idea for the ending or the plot first?
Mary Kubica: I started with the twist first, which is unusual for me. I have a starting point and no idea where I am going with it. With this one the twist came first and then I stepped backwards and created the characters to go with it, building up to it.
EC: Comas played a role in the book?
MK: I did not know anyone who has been in a coma, but I did quite a bit of research. This book has a medical setting and there was a patient in a coma. I am also very fortunate to have several friends who are nurses, some ICU nurses. There is nothing like speaking to someone who knows the information and lives in that world. I asked them some very specific questions including the day-to-day experience of being a nurse. I wanted a couple of nurses to read the book after it was finished for accuracy.
EC: How would you describe the daughter Sienna?
MK: A typical sixteen-year-old girl. My daughter would have been the same age at the time I started writing this book. She is a little sassy, defiant, and likes to push the boundaries. She and her mother Meghan have a great relationship. They are close. She is obviously not shy and speaks her mind.
EC: How would you describe Meghan?
MK: I think characters will find her relatable. As a mother she puts her daughter first: Sienna’s happiness and safety. She has recently gone through a divorce and is trying to find her footing. Being a nurse and having to work she is trying to find the right balance between being a solo parent and working mom. She is very empathetic. But will do anything to protect those she loves. She is compassionate, guarded, and tough.
EC: What role did Nat play in the story?
MK: Meghan remembers her as a high school friend. She thought she knew her more than she did. She felt safe with her because Nat was someone she grew up with. Because she went through this divorce, she feels isolated, desperate, and alone so she confides in her a deep secret.
EC: How did you come up with the prologue scene at the beginning of the book?
MK: This was not the first thing I wrote. I knew I wanted to start something out with a bang that would grip the readers. As a parent the idea of someone taking their child is every parent’s worst nightmare.
EC: I never heard of virtual kidnapping, is it true?
MK: Sadly, this is prevalent these days. It is a way to get money even though there was never a kidnapping. They do not have that person.
EC: Would you have paid the money straight out?
MK: I do not know. This is one of the things I would bring up in my books. What would the reader do? Thankfully, most of us have never been in this situation. But if I thought someone had my child and had a short time to pay this ransom, I might have done it.
EC: Role of Caitlin?
MK: She is the patient in the ICU and unconscious. Because she cannot speak the readers get information from her parents, the Becketts. They reveal more and more about her over time. The more we learn about her, the less we like her. In the beginning Meghan bonds with Mrs. Beckett because they are both mothers who care so much about their daughters.
EC: Next book?
MK: I just started it so no title and no release date. It is another suspense novel. This has a new setting, the North Woods of Wisconsin. Two families go on vacation together and bad things start to happen.
THANK YOU!!
***
BIO: Elise Cooper has written book reviews and interviewed best-selling authors since 2009. Her reviews have covered several different genres, including thrillers, mysteries, women’s fiction, romance and cozy mysteries. An avid reader, she engages authors to discuss their works, and to focus on the descriptions of their characters and the plot. While not writing reviews, Elise loves to watch baseball and visit the ocean in Southern California, with her dog and husband.
For software pioneer Martin Post, the third richest man in America, his private compound on the Florida coast is a sunny no-man’s-land separating his family from the rest of the world. Now, expert forensic analysts Ellie Carr and Rachael Davies of the renowned Locard Institute have been summoned to its dark side.
Martin’s pregnant daughter, Ashley, had ventured on a day trip in her motorboat into the Gulf, only to wash up dead on a nearby shore. Although the local coroner determined her death was an accident, Ellie and Rachael soon confirm Martin’s gravest fear: His daughter was murdered. Was it a kidnapping gone wrong? Or something even more brutal? Ashley and her husband, Greg, had been working working with Martin on a revolutionary new defense initiative for the US military – could espionage have played a part in her death? Martin believes Greg is behind the murder, and the spoiled charmer does set off Rachel’s deception radar. If the widower didn’t kill Ashley himself, why isn’t he more upset that she’s dead?
Drawn into the Posts’ increasingly dangerous family dynamic, Ellie and Rachael must work hard and fast to discover what secrets are buried at the heart of the crime. Because the churning waters of the Gulf are getting rougher. And soon, Ellie and Rachael themselves will be in danger of getting crushed in their depths.
THE DEEPEST KILL (A Locard Institute Thriller Book #3) by Lisa Black is another exciting crime thriller in the Locard Institute series featuring two female forensic experts who unite to solve deadly crimes from all over the country. While this is the third book in the series, they can all be read as standalone stories, but you continue to learn more about each of the main protagonists’ personal lives and backgrounds in each and I have enjoyed reading them in published order for that reason.
Dr. Rachel Davies and Dr. Ellie Carr, from the Locard Institute travel to Florida when they are hired by software billionaire Martin Post. Post does not believe his daughter’s death was an accident even though that was the local M.E.’s determination. All the evidence points to the son-in-law who claims his innocence, but Rachel and Ellie continue to discover small inconsistencies. With each new discovery, Rachel and Ellie put themselves in the crosshairs of a killer who will stop at nothing to obtain their goals.
This is a crime thriller that pulled me in right from the start. The peril and suspense in the plot continue to escalate throughout with plenty of twists and red herrings. The clues Rachel and Ellie discovered along the way were intriguing and display the ingenuity of the author’s experience in the forensics field. Intertwined with the crime thriller plot were revelations from Ellie’s past, both personal and about her mother’s death. I felt there was an excellent balance between character development, crime plot, and description of forensics in this addition to the series.
I highly recommend this exciting crime thriller, the entire Locard Institute Thriller series, and this author.
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About the Author
Lisa Black’s books have reached the NYT bestsellers list, been translated into six languages and have been optioned for film. Perish was shortlisted for the inaugural Sue Grafton Memorial Award by Putnam and Mystery Writers of America. Lisa will be a Guest of Honor at 2021 Killer Nashville.
She is a certified crime scene analyst in Florida and a former forensic scientist for the Cleveland coroner’s office. She is a member of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, the International Association for Identification, and the International Association of Bloodstain Pattern Analysts, and has testified in more than fifty homicide trials.
She still aspires to drive Nancy Drew’s convertible and marry Ellery Queen.
Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for THE OTHER MURDER by Kevin G. Chapman on this Black Tide Book Tour.
Below you will find a book description, my book review, an about the author section and the author’s social media links. Enjoy!
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Book Description
Sometimes, the most dangerous thing . . . is the truth.
For disgraced cable news producer Hannah Hawthorne, covering the shooting of a pretty NYU sophomore is a chance for redemption. When the story snowballs into a media circus, Hannah’s reporting fans the sensationalistic flames and earns her acclaim. The tragic murder prompts protests and vigils that further magnify the story.
Meanwhile, Paulo, a neighborhood newspaper reporter, is following the other murder in Washington Square Park that same night – a young Hispanic boy. He discovers an unexpected connection that is political dynamite. When Hannah and Paulo team up, they uncover disturbing facts, leading them to question everything they thought they knew. It also leads them to the man who might be the killer.
When the story is ready to explode, the truth may be hotter than anyone can handle. Breaking the next scoop could ruin Paulo’s paper and wreck Hannah’s career – and it could get them both killed.
If you like David Baldacci’s page-turners, Michael Connelly’s cops, and Sara Paretsky’s quirky characters, you will love The Other Murder.
TRIGGER WARNING: Heavy theme of racism in the context of the news media’s coverage.
THE OTHER MURDER by Kevin G. Chapman is a crime thriller/police procedural with a twist in the storytelling that shines the light on media bias today. This is a tour de force standalone crime fiction novel that I could not put down.
Two people are murdered on opposite sides of Central Park. One a female white NYU student and the other a male Hispanic high school student. The media latches on to the white female’s murder and the story broadcasts across the country, while the Hispanic male’s story is largely ignored. No one believes the two may be tied together.
The story is written with intertwining perspectives between two journalists investigating the murders and two NYPD detectives investigating the murders. The investigation is very well plotted and paced between both groups, but what made this an exceptional read for me was the integration throughout the story of differences in handling, investigating, and reporting on crime depending on gender, ethnicity, and social class of the victim. It shines a spotlight on what media organizations believe readers want to read vs. the entire truth of the story.
All the characters in this story are fully developed, relatable and realistic, both good and bad. The plot is believable on every level. There is nothing I would want to change.
I highly recommend this brilliant crime thriller/police procedural!
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About the Author
Kevin G. Chapman is an attorney specializing in labor and employment law and an independent author. In 2021, Kevin finished the first five books in the Mike Stoneman Thriller series. Righteous Assassin (Mike Stoneman Thriller #1), was named one of the top 20 Mystery/Thrillers of 2019 by the Kindle Book Review and was a finalist for the Chanticleer Book Review CLUE award. Deadly Enterprise (Mike Stoneman Thriller #2) was also named a top-20 Mystery/Thriller of 2020 by the Kindle Book Review and made the Short-List for the 2020 CLUE Award. Book #3, Lethal Voyage, was the winner of the 2021 Kindle Book Award and a Finalist for the CLUE and for the InD’Tale Magazine RONE Award. Book #4 in the series, Fatal Infraction, was named Best Police Procedural of the year by the Chanticleer Book Review, and book #5 (Perilous Gambit) was published November 24, 2021. Kevin has also written a serious political drama, A Legacy of One, originally published in 2016, which was short-listed for the Chanticleer Somerset Award for literary fiction. A Legacy of One was re-published in a newly re-edited and revised second edition in 2021. Kevin recently completed a stand-alone mystery/thriller titled Dead Winner, published in late 2022, winner of the 2023 CLUE Award (best suspense/thriller), and he is working on a stand-alone mystery titled The Other Murder. Kevin is a resident of Central New Jersey and is a graduate of Columbia College and Boston University School of Law.
