Lisa Harris (1) (1969–)

The Catch is the exciting and oh-so-satisfying conclusion to author Lisa Harris’s US Marshals series.

When the judge set to preside over the arraignment of the dangerous drug lord Maxim Cervantes receives threats to his life if he doesn’t rule the right way, the US Marshals Service, including partners Madison James and Jonas Quinn, are sent to protect the officers of the court. No sooner are they on-site when masked and armed men attack the courthouse. Madison and Jonas get the judge show more safely out of harm’s way, but Cervantes’ men are able to free their boss and escape.

Reporting back to their Seattle headquarters, the two partners are quickly dispatched to the judge’s home, where he’d arrived to find his wife murdered. Believing this is linked to the morning’s attack, they coordinate with the detective assigned to the case, but they soon discover that the shooter they’re looking for is a young woman - the judge’s mistress and mother of his infant son. To make matters worse, when Madison and Jonas track Becca Lambert down, they learn that baby Easton and his sitter, Becca’s trusted friend, Ava, have gone missing, and all indications are that they have been kidnapped! Madison and Jonas must pull out all the stops trying to find Easton and Ava before it’s too late.

This third book of the US Marshals trilogy kept me glued to its pages as federal marshals Madison James and Jonas Quinn search for a missing baby and sitter. The story reveals the truth about the murder of Madison’s husband five years earlier, the series’ major plotline. But will the resolution release the main character from her single-minded mission and allow her to find peace and a new life with Jonas?

I particularly liked Harris’s choice to feature the US Marshal Service in this series. Growing up, a friend of my parents was a marshal, and I always enjoyed his stories and company. And, other than movies like The Fugitive, this law enforcement branch seems infrequently used in the mystery genre, except for minor, minor roles. Of course, that thought sent me down a rabbit hole of research looking for other main role books!

Another aspect I enjoyed was that the action traversed the Pacific Northwest. Readers are treated to the area’s broad variety of settings, including the vibrant city of Seattle, forestland, mountains, wilderness, the coast, its water and beaches. The changing venues energized an already exciting story that, once it started, never let up. There was so much unseen danger constantly looming over the characters, not only the two marshals but the missing woman and baby Easton.

The story also incorporated what looked like a simple mistake of communication between two federal agencies. This lapse led to unexpected collateral consequences that truthfully had me wondering how law enforcement can possibly coordinate all the things they do in reality. In this instance in the book, it seemed like their hands would have been tied no matter what.

But The Catch is not just a mystery. The book beautifully weaves together a puzzling mystery, heart-thumping suspense as well as a second chance romance. The emerging feelings between Madison and Jonas and their circumstances were heart-aching and, at all times, clean and honest. The series targets the Christian fiction market, and this author’s ability to deftly reveal her characters’ faith-filled lives and thoughts felt natural and genuine. The story warrants a broader audience, and readers who think they are not Christian fiction readers should definitely try this one.

I recommend THE CATCH to fans of the first two books in the trilogy and readers who enjoy exciting, suspense-filled mysteries with a clean and poignant underlying romance.

I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving an Advanced Review Copy from the author through Lone Star Literary Life/Lone Star Book Blog Tours. show less

What an adrenaline rush! Just finished reading Port of Origin and my heart is still racing. This book is action-packed from beginning to end. I kept reading it thinking this would be the perfect story to turn into a movie. It's like Outbreak and Captain Phillips combined into one.

After losing his wife, Dr. Josiah Allen decides to join his sister Rachel to help on a mercy ship off the coast of Africa. He sets out to volunteer for a few weeks and takes his daughter along. Through a series of show more events, he meets Mac, a security expert also on the ship. Although pirates are very active in the area, Dr. Allen is led to believe he and his daughter will be safe because all they have is medical supplies. Unfortunately, that does not end up being the case. One day while Dr. Allen is checking on patients in a local village, armed men take control of the ship and take everyone hostage including his daughter, sister, and Mac. A mysterious disease is infecting the local people including the wife and son of the armed man who sets this whole situation in motion. Meanwhile, a woman who had been working on the ship goes home to the states for the birth of her grandchild. Little does she know, she has already contracted the virus. Here starts a fast-paced set of events to figure out what is making people sick so they can stop the spread and also save their own lives from these dangerous men. It's a race against time for Josiah and Mac to get to the bottom of what is really going on. So many stories in one. I can't say too much more for fear of giving too much away.

I am afraid that with everything going on right now with the Covid-19 global pandemic, readers will see that this story is about stopping a deadly virus from spreading and they will skip it for now. Please don't do that. You will miss out on a great read. Yes, there are some parallels to what we are living in right now, but also so much more to this story. This book is full of action, pirates, deadly viruses, corruption, greed, and just the right amount of romance. If you enjoy medical thrillers, this is the book for you!

This is the second in the series after Ghost Heart, but this can totally be read as a standalone.
I am so looking forward to the rest in the series!

Thank you to the authors for the privilege of reading and reviewing this book. show less

I received an ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

Detective Josh Solomon is still mourning his late wife Olivia, whose death was a result of a home invasion gone bad. Or so he thought. When one of Olivia's former co-workers approaches Josh with her suspicions about other deaths, Josh realizes that Olivia's death may not have been random at all.

Wow, this book was BORING. It had a great premise and started off with a bang with a prologue that hit the ground running. I was so excited! Then show more the writing goes downhill. In chapter 1 we are introduced to Caitlyn. How does author Lisa Harris manage to make the action seem too fast and too slow (and never just right) at the same time? Caitlyn gets run off the road immediately after asking questions at a coworker's funeral. I found this part annoyingly unrealistic. If you really had an evil conglomerate of people needing to keep things quiet, they wouldn't be so obvious. This action is what I mean by "too fast" -- it shouldn't have taken place so soon. But then after this incident all action comes to a screeching halt as Caitlyn thinks about what to do and finally settles on telling Josh. And the entire time she and Josh meet and discuss plans of action, there is absolutely zero action -- all talk. Hence my comment about "too slow."

What I found incredibly frustrating was that there is an inordinate amount of conversation between Caitlyn and Josh with NO plot advancement. The reader is already aware of everything Josh knows, as well as everything Caitlyn knows. So when Caitlyn and Josh get together and have to catch each other up, the author should have just covered that with a simple "They got each other up to speed over coffee." Instead, Harris rehashes EVERYTHING by painstakingly having Caitlyn and Josh explain everything to each other -- everything that the reader already knows and doesn't want to hear again. Good grief. Let's get on with the plot already. There's no need to rehash everything.

By page 65 (the start of chapter 7), I'd given up on the book because it wasn't getting any more interesting. I was bored out of my mind. At this point I started skimming in an attempt to finish the book somehow. Also, Josh's budding attraction to Caitlyn turned me off. His wife had just died a few months ago -- and violently, too, so I would have expected Josh to still be grieving and needing closure before developing feelings for another woman. By page 98 (the start of chapter 11), I gave up entirely and stopped reading. I couldn't stand it anymore; I was so bored. Mind you, this book was 297 pages long, so I got through only 1/3 of it. There's no way I was going to subject myself to 200 more pages.

Also, this book was not promoted as Christian fiction, and it should have been. (In fact, the back cover shows the category to be simply Romantic Suspense, and that is misleading.) Not being familiar with author Lisa Harris, I assumed the book was standard mystery thriller/romantic suspense fare. So I was taken aback when all of a sudden Caitlyn invokes God. This was a huge turnoff. I don't think it is necessary to include these random mentions of God and church in a book of this genre. It feels gratuitous. And not making it clear that this is Christian fiction feels deceptive on the part of the author's marketing team. show less

The exciting and believable debut of Lisa Harris’s Christian dystopian series, FALLOUT.

Survival is the first book in Lisa Harris’s Christian dystopian series, Fallout, and it’s been most appropriately described as “Longmire meets Jericho.” As an enthusiast of the dystopian/post-apocalyptic sub-genre, I can confidently say this book will go down as one of my favorites, and now I can’t wait to dive into the subsequent novels!

Jace McQuaid is an earnest and engaging protagonist, show more though I was initially surprised he took the lead, not his father. (I think the comparison to Longmire set up that expectation.) But it is through Jace’s point of view that the story unfolds, and we also get an additional subplot regarding his father to follow.

The plot felt more realistic than many other books I’ve read in this subgenre. There are a lot of unknowns as people struggle to survive, which I think would be the case. With their lines of communication gone, I don’t think anyone would really know (by this point in the story) what had caused technology’s collapse. As a radio operator, I would like to believe that some communication system would have regenerated pretty quickly, though. There are still quite a few Elmers and MacGyvers out there working with minimal tech. However, not having that up and running created limitations that made for a great story.

I liked that Jace and others always considered the impact “The Quake” had upon their neighbors, whether when trying to lend support or figure out what the bad guy would do next, given the circumstances. As adversity brings out the best and the worst in people, I hope most would tend to the good. I really enjoyed the mentions of how the town’s older residents had been sought out for their knowledge and memories of how things were done before technological conveniences became the norm.

Besides the dystopian storyline, there is romance. Starting as a warm and tentative attraction, Jace and Morgan have internal conflicts over letting their relationship grow into something more. Despite some differences, they are good together, and I was all for them becoming a couple. Little Noah was a sweet handful, and he made me smile.

With an exciting and realistic plot, engaging characters, and a desolate, dystopian west Texas setting, I recommend SURVIVAL to readers who enjoy dystopian stories with a romantic subplot and, so far, no viruses or zombies.

I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving an Advanced Review Copy from the author through Lone Star Book Blog Tours. show less