Blog Tour/Feature Post and Book Review: Dead Drop by James L’Etoile

Hi, everyone!

Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for DEAD DROP (A Detective Nathan Parker Novel Book #1) by James L’Etoile 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 Rafflecopter giveaway. Enjoy!

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Book Description

Hundreds go missing each year making the dangerous crossing over the border. What if you were one of them?

While investigating the deaths of undocumented migrants in the Arizona desert, Detective Nathan Parker finds a connection to the unsolved murder of his partner on a human smuggling run. The new evidence lures Parker over the border in search of the truth, only to trap him in a strange and dangerous land. If he’s to survive, Parker must place his life in the hands of the very people he once pursued.

Border violence, border politics, and who is caught in between. The forces behind it might surprise you.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61440622-dead-drop?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=ggtpHIUfIq&rank=2

Dead Drop

Genre: Thriller
Published by: Level Best Books
Publication Date: July 19, 2022
Number of Pages: 300
ISBN: 978-1-68512-114-3
Series: The Detective Nathan Parker Series, Book 1

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My Book Review

RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

DEAD DROP (A Detective Nathan Parker Thriller Book #1) by James L’Etoile is a mash-up of fast-paced thriller, Federal and local police procedural, and southern border crime mystery. This is the first book in this new series and the first book I have read by this author.

Detective Nathan Parker is called by an eccentric local named Billie about four 55-gallon drums off the side of the highway she discovered while searching for scrap. She has opened one of the drums and found a body stuffed inside. This dead drop is not the first found and all contained illegal immigrant males. The coroner discovers they have all died from fentanyl poisoning.

When Parker gets to close to several cartel operations, he is carried across the border to meet the head of the cartel and faces a horrible death, but Billie has followed him. Billie is not what Parker first perceived and he soon learns to survive, he is going to have to put his life in the hands of the people he once pursued and looked down upon.

I thought I was getting a straightforward southern border drug cartel crime story, but this story with its many twists and surprises is so much more. Nathan Parker is a man who has been in law enforcement for some time and has preconceived notions. He is also carrying a lot of guilt over the death of his partner. As Parker progresses through the story, he has his eyes opened and is discovering an empathy he did not have previously. Billie is a big part in helping Parker see the other side of his prejudice against illegal immigrants and in helping him fight and survive the antagonists. I liked Nathan and his character’s growth, but I really loved Billie. This is the first book I have read written by this author, and I will be looking for others in his catalogue. Great characters, fast-paced, surprising and a realistic ending had me reading this book way past my bedtime.

I highly recommend this first thriller in this new series, and I cannot wait for more!

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Excerpt

Chapter 1

With one good score Billie Carson hoped she could begin to repair the damage from her past. But after three hours kicking rocks in the sweltering North Phoenix sun, all Billie had to show for the effort was a bag of beer cans and three Jeep lug nuts. She knew most folks wrote her off as a scavenger, but Billie fancied herself as a treasure-hunter. It was a romantic notion, in her mind—always looking for that one big find. She’d dug up wallets, rings, car parts, and good scrap metal out here. Not the crap you tripped over in the bottom of a desert wash, but leftover copper wire from building sites and steel tire rims left behind on the side of the asphalt. The recycling yards paid you good money for that shit, but money could never really make up for the broken lives she’d left behind. How could you repay the ghosts of men you’d led to their death?

Billie looked at the meager haul in her black garbage bag and calculated she wouldn’t be able to buy a cold beer at Paula’s Roadhouse on the way home, let alone help anyone else. Besides, the Roadhouse made her sit outside on the patio with her beer, on the days she could afford one. Paula told her once she made the regulars uncomfortable and wasn’t welcome inside. The beer was cold out on the patio and she figured she wouldn’t like the company inside anyway.

She knew there were treasures out here among the Saguaro cactus and creosote brush waiting to be discovered. Hell, she found her Maui Jim sunglasses out here, you could barely see the crack in the left lens after you got used to it. If she had the money, she’d buy one of them fancy electronic metal detectors that beeped and chirped when you found the good stuff. Paula would let her inside the Roadhouse then, for sure. Until Billie found her big score, she’d keep her head down and kick some more rocks.

Dry, spindly brush dotted the roadside. Thin branches cracked when you knocked up against them. The broken limbs were sharp and left red welts if you ventured too far off the beaten path. Motorists tossed, or lost, most of the good stuff she found a few feet off the road. Billie couldn’t imagine a world where you lost hard earned jewelry out your window and didn’t bother to stop and go find it. If tourists on their way to Cave Creek, or Sedona, were so well off they didn’t need their stuff–that was fine by her.

Billie spotted a set of tire tracks off the asphalt and her heart began to race. What if she found a broken refrigerator dumped in the brush? She could eat for a month on what she’d pull for scrapping a hulking appliance. She’d figure a way to drag it out of the desert before someone else grabbed it. The wide tracks bent behind a rock outcropping digging three inches into the sandy desert floor. Billie knew the vehicle was laden with treasure if it left tire tracks up to her ankles.

She slipped a dingy blue bandanna from her head and wiped the gritty sweat at the back of her neck. A makeshift canteen, fashioned from a Gatorade bottle and a length of drapery cord hung from Billie’s neck. She unscrewed the plastic cap and poured the last of her water on the bandanna. The soaked cloth cooled her head for the climb to the top of the hardscrabble rock outcropping.

The view from the small rise looked down into a deep, sandy wash where the memory of scant seasonal rainfall from the monsoons faded into chalky dust. Patches of tinder-dry brush lined the edges of the dry bed. The heavens hadn’t seen fit to nourish their shallow roots for months. A moonscape of tumbled rocks, sand, and broken branches, left behind by a distant flash flood, lined the bed. At the center of the sandy basin, the deep ruts ended. A second set of tire tracks painted a story of a stop before backing into the middle of the sand. At the end of the tracks no prize waited for her; no refrigerator, no mattress, not even a crumpled beer can. Whatever it was, Billie figured someone else got here first. She crawled down the rock ledge to the floor of the basin, kicking smaller rocks and watching for rattlesnakes along the way.

Down in the wash, the dry brush was taller than it seemed from the view up on the rise. Thin dried fingers of creosote bush towered over Billie’s five-seven height, and the vegetation screened off access to the dry bed. The brush lay crushed and broken at the edge of the parched earth where the vehicle punched through the barrier. Billie hiked the plowed path, where dry shattered twigs snapped under her boots releasing the acrid resin smell from the creosote bush.

Hidden from the road, Billie knew this was the perfect spot for a quick illegal dump. Yet, there was nothing here. Maybe it was a quickie dump of another sort, she thought, a make-out spot for a couple of hormone-engorged teenagers.

She turned and spotted a bright white patch in the brush at the bottom of the draw. A few steps closer and Billie made out four fifty-five gallon drums partially hidden under a layer of broken creosote branches. She wouldn’t have seen them if it weren’t for the blue and white stripes emblazoned on the sides of the containers.

“Well, shit. This don’t get any better.”

Billie swiveled around and tried to catch a glimpse of anyone who might be keeping an eye on the barrels. She knew she wasn’t the smartest woman, but what she did know was people who stashed things in the desert, generally don’t want them found. She also knew you dumped things out here to get rid of them fast.

Billie got on her knees next to one of the barrels, tossed off the layer of broken branches, and the hot metal surface burned her palm. She wrapped her bandanna around her fingers and forced the barrel upright. It was heavy, but she felt the contents shift as the barrel moved. She figured a land developer or machine shop owner needed a place to dump used oil, or chemicals they’d have to pay the county to take off their hands. Billie figured the empty drums would net her ten bucks a piece, easy. She’d dump the oil, or whatever was in the cylinder, back in the dusty wash. Her daddy always poured his motor oil out in the desert and Billie never even saw so much as a sick coyote.

She strained with the locking ring on the lid. It wouldn’t budge. Billie ran a finger across dark marks where tack welds burnt the paint away from the locking ring.

Something good was in this barrel, for sure. Why go through this effort for used motor oil? If it was old pesticide, maybe she could wrangle a reward from one of them cactus-lovin’ environmental places.

Billie grabbed a rock and hammered it against the welds. They chipped away after a few blows, and the bent locking ring fell at her feet. With the blade of a folding knife Billie kept on her belt, she pried under the lid. The lid popped and released a strong odor from within the sealed container. Billie grabbed her bandana and held it over her nose. The stench was unmistakable–decomposing flesh.

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Author Bio

James L’Etoile uses his twenty-nine years behind bars as an influence in his novels, short stories, and screenplays. He is a former associate warden in a maximum-security prison, a hostage negotiator, facility captain, and director of California’s state parole system. He is a nationally recognized expert witness on prison and jail operations. He has been nominated for the Silver Falchion for Best Procedural Mystery, and The Bill Crider Award for short fiction. His published novels include: Black Label, At What Cost, Bury the Past, and Little River. Look for Dead Drop in the summer of 2022.

Social Media Links

www.jamesletoile.com
Goodreads
BookBub – @crimewriter
Instagram – @authorjamesletoile
Twitter – @jamesletoile
Facebook – @AuthorJamesLetoile

Purchase Link

 Amazon

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RAFFLECOPTER GIVEAWAY

https://kingsumo.com/g/u3ucmk/dead-drop-by-james-letoile

Book Review: Every Kind of Wicked by Lisa Black

RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

EVERY KIND OF WICKED (A Gardiner and Renner Book #6) by Lisa Black is a fast-paced, intricately plotted addition to this forensic/police procedural thriller series set in Cleveland, Ohio featuring a female forensics expert and a male detective tied together by a dark secret. This series is best read in order due to the evolving character arc between the two main characters, but the crime plots in each book can stand alone.

A young man is found dead in the snow in the Erie Street Cemetery and Jack Renner is assigned to investigate with Maggie Gardiner on scene to look for any forensic evidence. Maggie’s ex-husband, Rick is assigned to investigate the death of a junkie in what appears to be an overdose by the Westside Market. At first, they are considered separate cases, but they begin to merge when both cases lead back to a pill-pushing doctor they are having difficulty finding.

When Maggie is called to the scene of a murdered woman connected to Rick’s case, she discovers a bloody fingerprint, and it belongs to Rick. Rick is missing and Maggie refuses to believe he could be involved in this murder. As Jack and Maggie investigate the several murders they find connections to a call-center scam operation as well as a Medicare scam. Maggie’s world is about to be changed forever.

This was such an exciting addition to the series! I could not put it down. You have two crime plots that at first do not seem connected and then Ms. Black merges them into one terrible criminal operation which was completely unexpected. Maggie faces personal emotional trauma during this story that was a complete surprise and then the ending through me for a complete loop. I love that this series is set in my hometown and I can visualize all the locations in the book.

This is definitely one of the best books in this series! I cannot wait for the next book. I highly recommend this series and author.

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About Lisa Black

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.

Website: https://lisa-black.com/

Friday Feature Author Interview with Elise Cooper: Cold Snap by Marc Cameron

Book Description

After an early spring thaw on the Alaskan coast, Anchorage police discover a gruesome new piece of evidence in their search for a serial killer: a dismembered human foot.

In Kincaid Park, a man is arrested for attacking a female jogger. Investigators believe they have finally captured the sadistic serial killer. But one deputy is sure they have the wrong man.

In the remote northern town of Deadhorse, Alaska, Deputy US Marshal Arliss Cutter escorts three handcuffed prisoners onto a small bush plane on route to Anchorage. The men have been charged with racketeering, drug trafficking, and kidnapping. But Cutter doesn’t expect any trouble from them. It’s a routine mission and a nonstop flight—or so he thinks. When the plane makes an unexpected landing in the middle of nowhere, all hell breaks loose. The prisoners murder a pilot and guard. The plane is torched and blown up. And the last few survivors are forced to flee into the wilderness. But their nightmare’s just beginning. Back in Anchorage, deputy Lola Teariki has traced the dismembered foot to a missing girl—and the serial psychopath who slaughtered her.

It’s one of the prisoners on Cutter’s flight. . . .

Now it’s a deadly game of survival. With no means of communication, few supplies, and ravenous grizzly bears and wolves lurking in the shadows, Cutter has to battle the unforgiving elements while the cold-blooded killer wants his head on a stick. Here in Alaska, nature can be cruel—but this time, human nature is crueler. . . .

Drawing on his experiences as a deputy US marshal in Alaska, Cold Snap rings terrifyingly true.

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Elise’s Thoughts

Cold Snap by Marc Cameron is another riveting novel featuring his main character, Deputy US Marshal Arliss Cutter. The author worked in law enforcement as a US Marshal, so he keeps the plot realistic.  In this installment, there are gruesome murders, family issues that need resolving, and transporting lethal criminals as they battle the Alaskan elements.

Lola Tuakarie, part of a Fugitive Task Force, and Arliss are investigating a serial killer after women’s body parts are washed ashore.  Cutter is called away on a prisoner transport leaving Lola to work the serial killer case with the Anchorage police.  On the transport plane heading to Fairbanks are four very dangerous prisoners. Unfortunately, the pilot takes a detour, unknown to Arliss, where things go from bad to worse.  Now it becomes a matter of surviving the elements and the prisoners. 

Cameron puts the reader in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness. They feel the wind at their face, and the bitter cold from the downpour of snow.  Animals also become a factor with wolves and an 800-pound grizzly bear trying to get their next meal. There is no means of communication, few supplies, and prisoners who want nothing more than to kill Cutter.  He must use all his skills to protect himself and others found in the wilderness.

There is also a sub-plot regarding how Arliss’ brother, Ethan, died.  Was it an accident or murder?

All these sub-plots will hook the readers into the series.  The plot and characters are enthralling and allow everyone to see the hardships and danger those living in Alaska must face.

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Author Interview

Elise Cooper: How did you get the idea for the story?

Marc Cameron: I wanted to show how Marshals transport prisoners all the time.  They could be out in rough country. I played a ‘what if game,’ using my professional experience. I moved prisoners in very cold conditions but never was stranded in an airplane with one.  Small bush planes had six people.  It is less about tracking down the prisoners and more about survival with those who want to kill Arliss Cutter.

EC:  Who is to blame for the prisoners and Marshal being stranded?

MC:  It is just a series of situations.  The pilot veered out of the way to check on a friend.  Jill Phillips, the Chief Deputy played a central role because Arliss worked under her.  She was the one to ramrod the situation to find him.

EC:  Besides the prisoner transport there is another sub-plot?

MC:  There is a hunt for a serial killer who is chopping females up and letting their body parts wash up on shores around Anchorage.

EC:  The influence of the grandfather?

MC:  He was in law enforcement in the Florida Marine Patrol.  Arliss’ valued weapon, the Colt Python revolver, was his.  He raised Arliss and his brother Ethan. The grandfather was a role model who calmed and steadied Arliss. This book begins with a flashback when the boys were little.  Readers get to meet him on the page for the first time.  In getting to know the grandfather people can see why Arliss turned out the way he did. He is modeled after my own grandfather. 

EC:  In what way was Arliss’ grandfather modeled after your grandfather?

MC: Mine was a cowboy and a farmer who did not smile a great deal. He was a tough guy. When I was a little boy, he was one of my best friends.  He taught me how to fire a gun, fish, and hunt. I drew some wisdom from him, especially manners. Both grandfathers were not “grumpy” but never smiled or laughed a lot.

EC:  There was a scene between Mim and her daughter Constance.  Who was the adult in that scene?

MC:  Her daughter just accused her of sleeping with her brother-in-law when her husband was alive. She was very upset.  I would leave it to the reader if they thought Mim went a little overboard in her reaction. Plus, her daughter thought she was sleeping with Arliss because she looks like him and Constance knows Arliss loved Mim his whole life. I guess I meet lots of grown-ups that act like children.

EC:  The elements of Alaska are front and center?

MC:  I did encounter bears several times. Sometimes, we have bears in our yard.  We look out the door before we walk to our car.  Every time is different. I wrote in the animals including bears and wolves plus the havoc the weather created. It would be impossible to write a realistic book about Alaska without writing about the animals and elements.  Unless someone lived in or walked in deep snow it is hard to imagine how exhausting it is. It is very easy to overexert, getting sweaty, getting cold, and having fatigue. It can be deadly. Tea is very common here to warm someone up.

EC:  Why the Kipling reference?

MC:  Kim, is my favorite novel written by Rudyard Kipling about a child that grew up in India.  He became a spy for the British.  Kim’s game is a parlor game made famous by this book. A bunch of items are put on a tray.  It is uncovered for a minute and people try to list all that was on it.  It is a memory game.  Snipers and spies play it.  Trackers can use it because it is an observation game. It teaches people to observe and memorize things systematically.  

EC:  Readers learn a lot about trackers?

MC:  They will rarely arrest someone. For example, there was a missing hunter in Alaska.  Troopers knew he was in the mountains. I was one of trackers in the area.  I was flown to where they had last seen him and asked to find his camp. I had to track backwards. I did find his camp. I told those in the helicopter he was headed in this direction.  It is not like the old days where there was one tracker, but a whole team. We did find him.  If we are tracking a fugitive, we inform the others.  The best way to explain it is that the tracker is like a tool to find the person.

EC:  What about your next book?

MC:  The Ethan investigation is convoluted and will be reoccurring. In the next book a lot of stuff comes to light. The title is Breakneck and it comes out this time next year.  A Supreme Court Justice visits Alaska and someone is trying to kill her on the wilderness Alaska train.  Arliss and Lola are guarding her and trying to protect her on that train.  Meanwhile Mim is in far North Alaska in the same area where Ethan used to work, and she is looking into his death.

THANK YOU!!

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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.

Book Review: Let Justice Descend by Lisa Black

RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

LET JUSTICE DESCEND (A Gardiner and Renner Book #5) by Lisa Black is another exciting addition to this crime thriller series featuring a forensics expert and a detective who takes justice into his own hands. The crime plots in each book stand on their own, but I feel to understand the dynamics between the main characters, these books are best read in order.

With only three days before the contentious November election, Maggie and Jack are called to a unique crime scene. The current U.S. Senator Diane Cragin is dead on her own doorstep from electrocution. Cragin’s chief of staff is quick to blame the Senator’s Democratic contender, Joey Green Cleveland’s city development director.

With almost a million is cash found in the Senator’s home safe, Maggie and Jack must follow the money through the double-dealing politics of Cleveland and D.C. which only leads to more suspects. The investigation into the pending election exposes corruption at the highest levels and leads to more dead bodies as Maggie and Jack work to put the pieces together and catch a killer.

I love Maggie and Jack and the twist at the end of this book! The pace of the plot moves quickly with the election so close. Ms. Black does a good job of keeping the political players equally good and bad without favoring one side or another. The two political projects were good examples of how corrupt government officials and dark money work for the participants, but not the public and the government employee who was looking out for the public really had limited power. This story brings elements of political intrigue, police procedural and forensics all together into a thriller read.

I loved this addition to the series, the entire series and cannot wait for the next book to find out what Jack does next!

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About Lisa Black

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.

Website: https://lisa-black.com/

Book Review: Suffer the Children by Lisa Black

RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

SUFFER THE CHILDREN (A Gardiner and Renner Novel Book #4) by Lisa Black is a gripping addition to the Gardiner and Renner series set in a juvenile facility with memorable characters. This police/forensic procedural can easily read as a standalone, but to understand the complex relationship between Gardiner and Renner this series is best read in order.

Firebird Juvenile Center is a prestigious Cleveland secure facility for damaged juvenile offenders who have committed minimal to serious offenses and cannot be remanded back to their homes, if they have one, without serious counseling and rehabilitation. Forensic expert Maggie Gardiner and homicide detective Jack Renner are called to the facility when fifteen-year-old Rachel Donahue is found dead at the bottom of a stairwell. The initial coroner’s findings lead to a judgement of misadventure.

As Jack and his partner Riley are finalizing their investigation, another young resident is found dead in the infirmary. Maggie and Jack are soon caught up in a secure facility with its residents ending up dead and a search for the killer among the many suspects.

Maggie and Jack also must worry about Maggie’s ex-husband discovering Jack’s secret life.

I really love this series and its main characters! I find Maggie’s forensic procedures and techniques always interesting and informative. With every book, the readers learn a little more of Jack’s back story and the lines he will or will not cross for justice. The attraction between these two continues to grow and is just fascinating because they started so far apart. Maggie’s ex-husband’s investigation into the Vigilante Killer is getting much to close to exposing Jack’s secret and Ms. Black’s twist to keep Jack safe for the moment is great. The crime/thriller plot is fast paced and almost reads like a locked room mystery since main the suspects are locked down in the Firebird Center. I found the information interspersed throughout the plot about juvenile justice and rehabilitation interesting and at the same time sad. It truly is a complex social problem which lends itself to interesting twists to this story.

I highly recommend this addition to the series and these main characters!

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About Lisa Black

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.

Website: https://lisa-black.com/

Book Tour/Feature Post and Book Review: A Final Call by Eliot Parker

Hi, everyone!

Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for A FINAL CALL (A Stacy Tavitt Thriller) by Eliot Parker on this Black Coffee Book Tour.

Below you will find an about the book section, my book review, an about the author section and the author’s social media links. Enjoy!

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About the Book

Homicide Detective Stacy Tavitt has too much on her plate. Her delinquent brother is in deep trouble and now he’s gone missing. Is he in danger? Is he dead? And an old college friend has a missing son, Colton, and is counting on Tracy to track him down. But Stacy’s last investigation has left her physically sick and at risk of being invalided out. She has a lot to prove and time isn’t on her side. Nor, it would appear, are some of her colleagues.

At first, there is little reason to suspect foul play in Colton’s disappearance – until he becomes the primary suspect in the brutal murder of an ex-girlfriend.

There are dirty cops in the force and dirty business at every turn. It’s a race against the clock as Stacy searches for the truth about her brother, the location of her friend’s son, and the mystery of a killer who is targeting her friend’s family.

She needs answers, even if she has to break the rules to find them. This time it’s personal.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59148763-a-final-call?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=FK1v3nQKHm&rank=1

A FINAL CALL

By Eliot Parker

  • Genre:  Detective thriller, murder mystery
  • Print length: 260 pages
  • Age range: This is an adult novel
  • Trigger warnings: Graphic violence; sexual violence; homicide

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My Book Review

RATING: 4 out of 5 Stars

A FINAL CALL (A Stacy Tavitt Thriller Book #2) by Eliot Parker is an edge-of-your-seat thriller with a memorable female detective protagonist. This second book has a new crime and investigation plot, but characters and some plot points carry over from book one, Code for Murder, so I feel these books are best read in order.

Lieutenant Stacy Tavitt is a detective in the Cleveland PD Robbery /Homicide unit who is contacted by a former college classmate who seeks her help to find her missing son, Colton. While she agrees to help, she is reluctant to investigate until his girlfriend is found brutally murdered and he is the prime suspect. As Stacy and her partner work the case, people tied to Colton continue to end up dead.

At the same time, Stacy is still trying to find her missing brother and learning to live with thoracic outlet syndrome both tied to the last case she worked. When the dirty cop her brother was last seen with ends up dead in police custody, Stacy feels time is running out to find him alive.

I read this book all in one sitting. Stacy is such a compelling protagonist with her sense of duty which conflicts with her love of her brother and also having to work with a debilitating breathing condition. She is a character that pulls you in and is written believably with her messy life and relationships. I believe the author did a good job of bringing needed information forward from book one, but I do wish I had read it first. The plot is full of realistic action, violence, and big city crime with a consistently fast pace. The investigation led me on a twisted chase with a satisfying conclusion to both cases, but the surprise ending….not so much and that is the only reason I did not give this book a five star rating.

This is an exciting thriller and I really enjoyed it, but the surprise ending will be either loved or not by the reader. No spoilers here.

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About the Author

Eliot Parker is the author of the short story collection SNAPSHOTS, which won the 2020 PenCraft Literary Award and the 2021 Feathered Quill Book Award for Short Story Anthology. His thriller novel, A Knife’s Edge, was an Amazon #1 bestseller and is currently being optioned as a television series by Voyage Media and Screenworks Entertainment. Eliot has received the West Virginia Literary Merit Award for his works and has also been a finalist for the Southern Book Prize in Thriller Writing in 2017 for his novel Fragile Brilliance. He hosts the podcast program, Now Appalachia, which profiles authors, editors, and publishers in the Appalachian region. A graduate of the Bluegrass Writers Studio at Eastern Kentucky University with his M.F.A. in Creative Writing and a graduate of Murray State University with his Doctorate in English, Eliot teaches writing that the University of Mississippi.

Social Media Links

Website: https://www.eliotparker.com

Facebook: facebook.com/eliot.parker.98

Twitter: https://twitter.com/e4419

Purchase Link

http://mybook.to/Amazon_FinalCallEP