Tami Hoag

I really enjoyed the third book in the Kovac and Liska series. We have Kovac and Liska involved in a case that involves a judge (Judge Carey Moore) that is attacked after giving out a controversial ruling related to a defendant's prior bad acts not being allowed to be introduced to a jury when he goes on trial for the murder of woman and her two foster kids.

Kovac is at first not looking forward to the assignment. He doesn't care for Judge Moore now that she is a judge. When she was a show more prosecutor many in the police force liked her. They thought they had a shoo-in now when they brought defendants to appear before her. She quickly disabused them of that notion by not showing favoritism to the prosecutor or defendant. I do love how for Kovac that is a betrayal. He ends up liking Carey though when he sees how she is with her daughter and he realizes that something is up with her marriage.

Liska is still dealing with juggling her job and her personal life. Being a mother to two boys with an absent ex, Liska keeps wondering is it fair to still do homicides and not switch to something that will keep her at home more.

Honestly the partnership between Kovac and Liska is what keeps me reading this series. They get each other and the other detectives in homicide run together like a very well tuned machine.

For the first time ever though we get to see a slightly out of control Kovac in this one. He is very focused on Judge Moore's husband and you start to see that Kovac may be dealing with a bit of a "crush" for her despite how he first felt about her.

I do think that the secondary characters were developed very well. We have the man that many want to see dead for murder (Karl Dahl) we also have Kovac unraveling key players involved with Moore's husband. And we have a detective who had to walk through the house and find three dead people who now haunt him who is focused on getting justice. And we also get a very quick appearance by Kate Quinn (formerly Conlan) who we now assume is married to John Quinn based on what Kovac reveals.

The writing was great and so was the flow.

The main reason why I didn't give this five stars though is that there was still the unanswered question related to Judge Moore's husband. It is just left dangling. I purposely re-read "The 9th Girl" after this and it does reference this book/case and Judge Moore so that was nice. I just wish that Hoag had wrapped up all loose ends in this one. show less

This thriller is the second book in the Broussard/Fourcade series. Both are police detectives in a small Sheriff's office in Cajun Louisiana. They are a married couple with a five-year-old son.

Nick Fourcade is called to a crime scene where he discovers a brutally murdered seven-year-old boy. His mother is injured but managed to run to a neighbor's home to get help. Fourcade is also still investigating the sexual assault of an autistic teenage girl which has stirred lots of public sentiment. show more

Annie Broussard is also investigating the murder. Since she's good with children, she's assigned to interview the young boy's twelve-year-old babysitter. She finds a chaotic home situation and a missing babysitter. The girl's mother hadn't even noticed that she had been missing for a couple of days.

Meanwhile, the new sheriff who happens to be a flaming narcissist, is resenting every moment of publicity that Fourcade is getting and resents that he has no control over Fourcade or Broussard. He has a fiancée and potential stepson who are being psychologically abused by him when they fail to behave perfectly.

This twisty thriller had me changing my opinion about the killer numerous times as different things were discovered in the investigation. I enjoyed the setting. I also really liked both Nick and Annie. show less

When Los Angeles bike messenger Jace Damon tries to make his last drop of the day for sleazy attorney Lenny Lowell, he is chased, shot at, and barely escapes with the package - and his life. Lenny isn't quite as lucky; and Jace becomes a 'person of interest' to the police. Kev Parker, the detective of record, also wonders why the death of bottom feeder Lenny is of interest to LAPD's elite homicide squad.

These are interesting, well-developed characters, in life-or-death action; the story show more moves fast, the tension builds, and the characters become people that the reader cares about. Spotting the villian in this one isn't easy. show less

This is a fabulous thriller that's very different from the normal, run of the mill, serial killer fare. Why? Because unlike most authors, Hoag doesn't feel the need to raise the suspense by subjecting her readers to what's often called "torture porn," the graphic scenes where a victim--usually female--goes through horrendous torture at the hands of the killer before being killed. These things occur "off stage" in Hoag's book.

There are a lot of grim situations in this book, and more varieties show more of dysfunctional family than you usually run across in a single novel. (As Tolstoy put it: "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.") If you're looking for a book that has sweet pictures of happy children, this isn't it. The children in this book aren't happy. But they're well-drawn and interesting, as are the adults.

There's a romantic element to this book that adds to its complexity, but it's not one that makes this a "romance" or even "romantic suspense." Nope, this is a straight thriller that just has a strong relationship in it. Enough to satisfy someone who likes a bit of happy with their grim, a bit of romance with their serial killer, but not enough to turn off someone who prefers to read straight thrillers.

All in all, a gripping, fast-paced read. show less