Overdue Review: Among the Ruins

Among the Ruins,  (Rachel Getty & Esa Khattak #3) by Ausma Zehanat Khan

Published February 14th 2017 by Minotaur Books

Hardcover, 368 pages

Source: e-ARC from NetGalley

On leave from Canada’s Community Policing department, Esa Khattak is traveling in Iran, reconnecting with his cultural heritage and seeking peace in the country’s beautiful mosques and gardens. But Khattak’s supposed break from work is cut short when he’s approached by a Canadian government agent in Iran, asking him to look into the death of renowned Canadian-Iranian filmmaker Zahra Sobhani. Zahra was murdered at Iran’s notorious Evin prison, where she’d been seeking the release of a well-known political prisoner. Khattak quickly finds himself embroiled in Iran’s tumultuous politics and under surveillance by the regime, but when the trail leads back to Zahra’s family in Canada, Khattak calls on his partner, Detective Rachel Getty, for help.

Rachel uncovers a conspiracy linked to the Shah of Iran and the decades-old murders of a group of Iran’s most famous dissidents. Historic letters, a connection to the Royal Ontario Museum, and a smuggling operation on the Caspian Sea are just some of the threads Rachel and Khattak begin unraveling, while the list of suspects stretches from Tehran to Toronto. But as Khattak gets caught up in the fate of Iran’s political prisoners, Rachel sees through to the heart of the matter: Zahra’s murder may not have been a political crime at all.

It is not easy to try to review a series from the middle so I will mostly just tell you that if you like mysteries and haven’t read these books YOU SHOULD START!  Book one of Esa and Rachel’s partnership, The Unquiet Dead, blew me away and The Language of Secrets was a worthy follow-up.  Now Esa has found his way into a new mystery while vacationing in Iran and Rachel tries to help as best she can from home in Canada.   As they had to work to communicate I found myself uncomfortably tense with worry about what would happen.  I was also 9 months pregnant when reading this – I might recommend against combination on reflection.  Too much anxiety!  We had deeply corrupt government figures, international drama, possibly stolen royal jewels and then family dramas – all wrapped up with murder.   

I have of course found myself emotionally caught up by characters in mysteries, even tearful (Flavia  de Luce I’m looking at you).  But I can’t think of a mystery book or series that gets me so caught up in the real fate of a group of people or nation or really just what the fuck is wrong with humanity sometimes.  Khan had me terrified and sad for the plight of prisoners in Iran – so much so I’d never want to go there- and at the same time longing to see the sights she described. Thankfully she started posting pictures on Facebook and saved me the searching time!  What a beautifully sad place.  

I’m also currently reading Khan’s foray into fantasy, The Bloodprint, and I’m really enjoying it.  Definitely getting flashbacks to the setting for Among the Ruins which is cool and different. 

Are you reading this series?  Any other good mysteries I should pick-up?  I think that’s the mood I’m heading into for fall.

Thank you Minotaur Books and NetGalley for this advance copy in exchange for an honest review! 

Why I’ve Fallen for Sydney Chambers

I’m totally head over heels for Grantchester.  The fact that the BBC Sydney looks like this doesn’t hurt.  

Usually I’m a book before film girl, but I don’t mind having this face already in my head when I’m reading Sydney’s adventures. I really enjoyed Sydney Chambers and the Shadow of Death and the follow-up Sydney Chambers and the Perils of Night did not disappoint.  Here’s the scoop of Sydney’s adventures in book two:

The loveable full time priest and part time detective Canon Sidney Chambers continues his sleuthing adventures in late 1950’s Cambridge. Accompanied by his faithful Labrador Dickens, and working in tandem with the increasingly exasperated Inspector Geordie Keating, Sidney is called on to investigate the unexpected fall of a Cambridge don from the roof of King’s College Chapel; a case of arson at a glamor photographer’s studio; and the poisoning of Zafar Ali, Grantchester’s finest spin bowler, in the middle of a crucial game of cricket. As he pursues his quietly probing inquiries, Sidney also has to decide on the vexed question of marriage. Can he choose between the rich, glamorous socialite Amanda Kendall and Hildegard Staunton, a beguiling German widow three years his junior? To help him make up his mind Sidney takes a trip abroad, only to find himself trapped in a complex web of international espionage just as the Berlin Wall is going up. Here are six interlocking adventures that combine mystery with morality, and criminality with charm.

Who would have expected Cambridge could be the scene of such murderous intrigue?  Again the book reads as it was almost made to be a BBC show but it works well while reading.  The mysteries are just long enough and just deep enough for an evening’s reading – but if you want to think deep thoughts you are left with the issues of post-WWII England including racism, homophobia, and the fight against communism.  But there’s still romance, and romantic betrayal, friendship and of course Dickens – the loyal black lab.  I am looking forward to more Sydney both on my tv screen and in book 3!  I’m very curious to see where the second season of the show goes based on the changes they made from the book.  

Thank you Bloomsbury USA for this copy in exchange for an honest opinion!

Review: All the Missing Girls

All the Missing Girls, Megan Miranda

Kindle Edition, 384 pages

Expected publication: June 28th 2016 by Simon & Schuster

Source: e-ARC from publisher via NetGalley

Megan Miranda’s novel is a nail-biting, breathtaking story about the disappearances of two young women—a decade apart—told in reverse.

It’s been ten years since Nicolette Farrell left her rural hometown after her best friend, Corinne, disappeared from Cooley Ridge without a trace. Back again to tie up loose ends and care for her ailing father, Nic is soon plunged into a shocking drama that reawakens Corinne’s case and breaks open old wounds long since stitched.

The decade-old investigation focused on Nic, her brother Daniel, boyfriend Tyler, and Corinne’s boyfriend Jackson. Since then, only Nic has left Cooley Ridge. Daniel and his wife, Laura, are expecting a baby; Jackson works at the town bar; and Tyler is dating Annaleise Carter, Nic’s younger neighbor and the group’s alibi the night Corinne disappeared. Then, within days of Nic’s return, Annaleise goes missing.

Told backwards—Day 15 to Day 1—from the time Annaleise goes missing, Nic works to unravel the truth about her younger neighbor’s disappearance, revealing shocking truths about her friends, her family, and what really happened to Corinne that night ten years ago.

When I heard this was a mystery told in reverse I was really unsure how I’d feel about it.  I have to say that this book was basically a mind fuck. We start in the present as Nicolette returns to her rural home town of Cooley Ridge to help convince her ill father to sell her childhood home.  She leaves her fiancé behind and he’s unaware that Nicolette will be facing down both memories of her high school best friend’s disappearance and her physical high school boyfriend who she’s never really said goodbye to.

We then go two weeks into the future when there’s been another disappearance and Nicolette is being told to run – I won’t tell you who from. The book goes through each day and then flashes back again.  This was such a great way to tell a mystery!  I thought that I had everything figured out as Nic flashed back through each day – and I was always wrong! I loved how Miranda was able to drop clues that made so much sense in the end but totally threw me off as I was reading.  

If you need a summer thriller this is it!  Suspenseful and well written – definitely one to read at the beach!

Thank you Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for this advance copy in exchange for an honest opinion!

Review: Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death

Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death, James Runcie (The Grantchester Mysteries #1)

Paperback, 400 pages

Published January 13th 2015 by Bloomsbury USA

Source: Copy from Publisher

Sidney Chambers, the Vicar of Grantchester, is a thirty-two year old bachelor. Sidney is an unconventional clergyman and can go where the police cannot.

Together with his roguish friend Inspector Geordie Keating, Sidney inquires into the suspect suicide of a Cambridge solicitor, a scandalous jewellery theft at a New Year’s Eve dinner party, the unexplained death of a well-known jazz promoter and a shocking art forgery, the disclosure of which puts a close friend in danger. Sidney discovers that being a detective, like being a clergyman, means that you are never off duty . . .

How did I not know about Grantchester?  A swooningly handsome English vicar with his loyal black lab puppy getting involved in murder mysteries in the 1950’s – yes please.  Meet tv Sidney:

 

With that image in mind I am happy to sacrifice my imagination to the BBC’s fine work.  I decided to dive into the books before checking out the tv series  and found myself reading a book that almost feels like it was written to become a tv series. The Shadow of Death was not one mystery but a series of somewhat interconnected stories.  As Sidney gets pulled in by the police we meet his friend Inspector Keating, his grumpy housekeeper, his love interests and his family.  I love the setting of England recovering from the war and the internal conflict of Sidney the war hero with the upright vicar.  You feel Sidney’s initial reluctance to become involved in police business then turning to excitement as he gets more involved in each case.  I can’t put my finger on why – but something reminded me of my beloved Flavia de Luce – maybe the slight grumpiness that gets into Sidney at times?

And obviously here’s where I was sunk – when Sidney is gifted a puppy he is told:

“There is nothing like a Lab for company, and the black are better for conversation I find.”

Loki – Always listening for conversation

I am looking forward to seeing if the stories grow any deeper in the second book in the series, after all now the stage has been set and Sidney’s supporting characters largely revealed.  I’m very curious about where dualing love interests will head

Now the biggest question is – do I binge Season One of Grantchester before or after reading more Sidney?  Are you reading or watching this series?  Let me know!

Thank you Bloomsbury USA for this copy in exchange for an honest opinion!

Review: The Language of Secrets

The Language of Secrets, Ausma Zehanat Khan

Hardcover, 336 pages

Published: February 2nd 2016 by Minotaur Books

Source: Goodreads giveaway

Detective Esa Khattak heads up Canada’s Community Policing Section, which handles minority-sensitive cases across all levels of law enforcement. Khattak is still under scrutiny for his last case, so he’s surprised when INSET, Canada’s federal intelligence agency, calls him in on another potentially hot button issue. For months, INSET has been investigating a local terrorist cell which is planning an attack on New Year’s Day. INSET had an informant, Mohsin Dar, undercover inside the cell. But now, just weeks before the attack, Mohsin has been murdered at the group’s training camp deep in the woods.

INSET wants Khattak to give the appearance of investigating Mohsin’s death, and then to bury the lead. They can’t risk exposing their operation, or Mohsin’s role in it. But Khattak used to know Mohsin, and he knows he can’t just let this murder slide. So Khattak sends his partner, Detective Rachel Getty, undercover into the small-town mosque which houses the terrorist cell. As Rachel tentatively reaches out into the unfamiliar world of Islam, and begins developing relationships with the people of the mosque and the terrorist cell within it, the potential reasons for Mohsin’s murder only seem to multiply, from the political and ideological to the intensely personal.

I was blown away last year by Ausma Zehanat Khan’s debut, The Unquiet Dead.  I can’t think of another mystery that had me so caught up in the plot and also left me in tears.  So I was very excited to start her next book about Detectives Khattak and Getty.  A Muslim police officer investigating in a mosque for a murder suspect – while there is also a terrorism investigation happening.  Sounds almost as intense as Khan’s last book about a Balkan war criminal sneaking into Canada and ending up murdered.  Khattak is so different than a basic murder cop you might read about – he has so many layers and his story as I know it so far is fascinating.   There is so much beauty to Islam and I really liked getting Khattak’s interpretation of his faith – especially interesting juxtaposed with a suspected violent extremist.  

Again I was caught up until the very end of this book as to who the actual murderer was and it was no one I suspected!   I was so sure I knew what had happened but Khan definitely led me down the wrong path.  I like how Khattak and Getty work together, and I will definitely hope for a 3rd book with more about Rachel again.  Here we had much more of Esa and his family which was great, but I would have liked both of them.  

I might have been better served by rereading the Unquiet Dead before starting The Language of Secrets.  There are references to the previous case and the fallout it caused – so while this works as a stand alone I would recommend starting with book one.  While Rachel Getty is definitely a lighter foil to her partner she’s not really so light herself.  These are pretty heavy books overall.  The dramatic past between Esa and his fellow police is plot relevant, but also felt like it bogged the flow down at times.  That is what kept this from being a 5 star read for me.  

This cover fits so well and is totally creeping me out when I look at it now that I’ve finished. This is a perfect match for this mystery – it was creepy and dark!  

4 stars!

Thank you Minotaur Books and Goodreads for this advance copy in exchange for an honest opinion!

2015 TBR Challenge Review: The Beekeeper’s Apprentice

The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, Laurie King (Mary Russell & Sherlock Holmes #1)

Published April 1st 2010 by Minotaur Books

ebook, 368 pages

Source: Chicago Public Library

1914, a young woman named Mary Russell meets a retired beekeeper on the Sussex Downs. His name is Sherlock Holmes. And although he may have all the Victorian “flaws” listed above, the Great Detective is no fool, and can spot a fellow intellect even in a fifteen-year-old woman.

So, at first informally, then consciously, he takes Mary Russell as his apprentice. They work on a few small local cases, then on a larger and more urgent investigation, which ends successfully. All the time, Mary is developing as a detective in her own right, with the benefit of the knowledge and experience of her mentor and, increasingly, friend.

And then the sky opens on them, and they find themselves the targets of a slippery, murderous, and apparently all-knowing adversary. Together they devise a plan to trap their enemy–a plan that may save their lives but may also kill off their relationship.  This is not a “Sherlock Holmes” story. It is the story of a modern young woman who comes to know and work with Holmes, the story of young woman coming to terms with herself and with this older man who embodies the age that is past.

So I’m probably not making it through my 2015 TBR Challenge books but I am still trying! I am so glad I got The Beekeeper’s Apprentice off my to read list – however, it’s now been replaced by the sequel, A Monstrous Regiment of Women.  Also, I now really have to read Sherlock Holmes himself I think.  

Young Mary Russell nearly falls over Sherlock Holmes while out walking one day.  A friendship is struck between the odd pair and as she grows up and studies Mary realizes that Holmes is more than her teacher, and that she is a fit partner for the semi-retired detective.  Their adventures are told by Mary herself reflecting back in time.  

I loved reading about a young woman like Mary.  She’s brilliant and determined and she’s not cowed by Holmes just because of who he is.  Mary is not perfect and I really enjoyed how she and Holmes balance each other out.  I particularly enjoyed picturing them as a gypsy father and daughter trying to get themselves arrested to start to solve a kidnapping.  I appreciated that King gives the reader more than just one mystery in this first book and I liked seeing Mary take bigger steps as a detective in each case.  I look forward to seeing how the series unfolds.

4 stars!

3 weeks, 4 challenge books to go.  I will get as far as I can before I admit defeat!  Sadly Adam at the Roofbeam Reader has decided he will not be hosting a 2016 TBR Challenge due to commitments outside of book life.  Holly and I liked the challenge so much that, along with Eva at The Paperback Princess, we’re going to continue to push ourselves to clear our TBR shelves.  Let’s be honest, we’re not as organized as Adam was so we won’t be as fancy.  But if you are looking for a challenge please join us and make a 2016 TBR list!

Review: Cop Town

Cop Town, Karin Slaughter

Published June 24th 2014 by Delacorte Press

Kindle Edition, 384 pages

Source:e-ARC from NetGalley

Atlanta, 1974: As a brutal murder and a furious manhunt rock the city’s police department, Kate Murphy wonders if her first day on the job will also be her last. She’s determined to defy her privileged background by making her own way—wearing a badge and carrying a gun. But for a beautiful young woman, life will be anything but easy in the macho world of the Atlanta PD, where even the female cops have little mercy for rookies. It’s also the worst day possible to start given that a beloved cop has been gunned down, his brothers in blue are out for blood, and the city is on the edge of war.

Kate isn’t the only woman on the force who’s feeling the heat. Maggie Lawson followed her uncle and brother into the ranks to prove her worth in their cynical eyes. When she and Kate, her new partner, are pushed out of the citywide search for a cop killer, their fury, pain, and pride finally reach the boiling point. With a killer poised to strike again, they will pursue their own line of investigation, risking everything as they venture into the city’s darkest heart.

This book was definitely gripping in the beginning.  A young cop, running for his life while carrying his partner’s body – will they live?  Is it too late for his partner?  

Unfortunately for me the mystery was lost in the totally misogynistic setting.  I’ll believe that Slaughter did her research and that this is what Atlanta’s Police was like for women of this time – and OMG they are amazing bad asses for surviving it if so – but the unrelenting sexism, racism, violence and homophobia of this book was just too much for me.  It felt like there was honestly nearly nothing uplifting that happened.  I can take a dark mystery, but give me a little levity please!

The bright side was that yes, Maggie and Kate, the two brave young women on the Atlanta Police Department were able to join together and search for the killer together despite the old white men’s club keeping them down.  I just wish they’d been richer characters that I really could have supported.  They were so downtrodden and there was so much darkness I just could barely root for them.

I was intrigued by the Shooter at first and trying to understand his motivations, but then those too felt too varied.  The resolution felt rushed, leaving the explanations flat for me as well.

Based on the reviews I’ve seen of Slaughter’s crime series I may look for those at the library when I need a thriller- but Cop Town was just not a win for me.  Based on the detail she put into this setting I’d like to try on of her books that’s set in a different time – maybe that would be a bit happier!

Thank you Delacorte Press and NetGalley for this advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Review: The Lake House

The Lake House, Kate Morton

Published October 20th 2015 by Atria Books

Hardcover, 400 pages

Source: ARC received from publisher

Living on her family’s idyllic lakeside estate in Cornwall, England, Alice Edevane is a bright, inquisitive, innocent, and precociously talented sixteen-year-old who loves to write stories. But the mysteries she pens are no match for the one her family is about to endure…

One midsummer’s eve, after a beautiful party drawing hundreds of guests to the estate has ended, the Edevanes discover that their youngest child, eleven-month-old Theo, has vanished without a trace. What follows is a tragedy that tears the family apart in ways they never imagined.

Decades later, Alice is living in London, having enjoyed a long successful career as an author. Theo’s case has never been solved, though Alice still harbors a suspicion as to the culprit. Miles away, Sadie Sparrow, a young detective in the London police force, is staying at her grandfather’s house in Cornwall. While out walking one day, she stumbles upon the old estate—now crumbling and covered with vines, clearly abandoned long ago. Her curiosity is sparked, setting off a series of events that will bring her and Alice together and reveal shocking truths about a past long gone…yet more present than ever.

I began reading the Lake House thinking I knew what was about to happen.  I read the first pages of young Alice Edevane and flashed back to Ian McEwan’s Atonement and Cecilia her sister Briony.  I thought I didn’t like Alice at all and predicted a poor little rich girl story —  I was so totally wrong.   Almost every expectation I had about where this plot was going was proved false and I loved every minute of it.

Alice is 16 when her baby brother Theo- the apple of everyone’s eye – disappears during a huge family party at their lake house in Cornwall.  Alice lives with a lifetime of guilt for what she sees as her role in what happened to Baby Theo – as do each of her family members.  When we flash forward Alice is in her 80’s and is a famous writer of police novels living in London.  Her family entirely gave up their lake house after Theo’s disappearance.  We next meet a real London police woman, Sadie Sparrow, who’s hiding out in Cornwall due to crisis with both her work and her personal life.  Sadie picks up on the mystery of Theo Edevane rather than think about her next steps.  

Sadie goes into the local library to research the Edevane family and thinks to herself she “would never have guessed in a million years that a person could gain this sort of satisfaction from a visit to the library, certainly not a person like her.”   That made me giggle.  I am such a book nerd that I even love it when book characters find delight in reading!  Anyway, thankfully Sadie does learn to use the library and begins to dig into to history of the family, the lake house and what could have happened to baby Theo.  

Morton takes the reader further back in time to the meeting and romance between Alice’s parents and their newly wedded bliss.  The story moves back and forth through their early years and the life-altering War; then to Sadie’s current investigations and Alice’s own ruminations on her family.  We shift perspective often between Alice to Sadie, but also to several other characters from time to time.  Morton makes the changes read easily and I really enjoyed the flow between the observers and in time.  The story was so much richer for all the different sides she exposes you to.

Maybe Sadie’s personal story felt a bit more contrived than that of the Edevane family – but even that didn’t distract from the overall mystery for me.  I had guesses, but I definitely didn’t see the end all through.   I need to start adding all of Kate Morton’s books to my library list as soon as possible!  I also would really like to go to Cornwall and wander and see what kind of mysterious home I could stumble upon.   It feels like it would have to happen after reading this book!

4 stars!

Thank you so much to Atria Books for this advance copy in exchange for an honest opinion!

All quotes taken from an unfinished galley copy in advance of publication.

Review: Hawley Book of the Dead

The Hawley Book of the Dead, Chrysler Szarlan

Amanda

Hardcover, 352 pages

Published September 23rd 2014 by Ballantine Books

Source: e-ARC from NetGalley

From the Publisher:

An old house surrounded by acres of forest.

A place of secrets, mysteries and magic.

This is where Reve Dyer hopes to keep herself and her children safe.

But a mysterious figure has haunted Reve for over a decade. And now Reve knows that this person is on her trail again.

In Hawley, where the magic of her ancestors reigns, Reve must unlock the secrets of the Hawley Book of the Dead before it’s too late…

It’s not often that you find yourself actively rooting for a character who has shot her loving husband, but Revelation Dyer is a different story.  Reve and her husband are Las Vegas illusionists working together when he is tragically killed during a show.  While living under police scrutiny in the aftermath, Reve remembers the childhood story her grandmother told her of the Fetch who chased her ancestors to their deaths.  Reve fears her own Fetch is onto her and spirits her family out of Las Vegas to family property at Hawley Five Corners, Massachusetts.

Reve’s magic is more than mere illusion you learn, as is that of her youngest daughter.  This magic goes back generations through the women in her family-women who lived in Hawley Five Corners before all of the townspeople disappeared one day.  Just poof! Disappeared.  So yes, after Reve’s husband is murdered she moves her kids to an uninhabited town in the middle of the woods.  Creepy.  Spooky as it sounds, this was Reve’s safe place as a child and her family is all nearby, so she believes they can stay hidden from the Fetch.  In this house in the middle of the woods Reve finds a book that has belonged to all of the Revelations before her and tries to turn to it for help.  I loved the creepy setting which surprised me as I don’t usually love scary things.  I loved digging into the story of what had happened in Hawley and how Reve’s family factored into that.

The Hawley Book of the Dead had my name all over it.  Generations of strong women, magic- not a ton but just enough to keep things interesting, and a mystery to solve.  However, I liked this book, but I just couldn’t love it.  The book jumps a bit from Reve’s perspective to that of her Fetch, as well as jumping back in time to the events that set him on her path. I liked this way of getting the path of the history across, but I still feel like somehow I missed something that would have made me love this more.  While the book read quickly for me in the beginning it slowed down in the second half – maybe due to all that jumping?  I also really didn’t like that her childhood love was thrown into the story – great that he shows up as a friend, but complicating things with a possible love connection did not work for me.  I think she could have dealt with the Fetch without that complication.

I am going to have to reread this one and see if I feel more into it. I see that Szarlan is working on another Revelation book and I would absolutely read it.  The stories of the other women in her family sound have a ton of potential.

3 stars!

Thank you Ballantine Books and NetGalley for this advance copy in exchange for an honest opinion!

Review: The Unquiet Dead

The Unquiet Dead, Ausma Zehanat Khan

Amanda

Hardcover, 352 pages

Expected publication: January 13th 2015 by Minotaur Books

Source: e-ARC from NetGalley

The Unquiet Dead is a debut mystery that twines together a questionable death in Canada to the atrocities committed in the Bosnian War of the ‘90s.  The reader is introduced to Inspector Esa Khattak and Sergeant Rachel Getty who are in a special community policing division consisting basically of the two of them.  Esa is called because the apparent accidental death of a businessman might actually be the suspicious death of a fugitive Serbian war criminal.  Esa and Rachel need to try to confirm Christopher Drayton’s identity without disrupting the Bosnian community that has become established in Canada.  They’re also trying to understand how a war criminal slipped through immigration to set himself up as a wealthy Italian importer.  They begin to delve into his personal life and to try to understand the evidence left behind in his home.  The mystery itself was excellent; this was an ending I did not see coming at all.

Someone else had figured out that Drayton was not who he claimed to be and was trying to remind him of the life he had left behind.  Esa and Rachel move between Drayton’s social circle and the Muslim community trying to find the threads linking them.  This is further complicated as Esa is himself Muslim and has his own history in Sarajevo.  I was enthralled by this book as I tried to figure out the killer before the police– I definitely didn’t do it this time.

The story flashes from Drayton’s life in Canada to the past in Srebrenica and the Bosnian War.  Khan masterfully uses quotes from survivors to make clear what went on during the massacre.  I found myself in tears on the train at times as I read.  I did not really understand what was happening in Bosnia when it was in the news so I did not have a lot of knowledge of the atrocities that occurred or the UN involvement.  There is a list of further recommended reading included and I will be digging into that so I can educate myself further. The author did her PhD dissertation on the Srebrenica massacre so she clearly knows her subject.

This was an intense and powerful read.  Not only are Esa and Rachel deep into this stressful investigation but they are also figuring out their relationship as partners and both dealing with emotional police cases from their past.  I was on edge while reading because of the mystery, but also due to their personal lives.  I definitely want more, so I am so glad to see another book is in the works.  Rachel in particular seemed to develop into a more complex character as the book finished and I cannot wait to see what’s in store for her.  Esa was cryptic too often and I would hope his story becomes more open in the next book.

4.5 stars!

Thank you NetGalley and Minotour Books for this advance copy in exchange for an honest review!