Stirred (Jacqueline "Jack" Daniels Mystery) (Jacqueline "Jack" Daniels / Luther Kite)

by J.A. Konrath and Blake Crouch

Lt. Jacqueline “Jack” Daniels has seen humanity at its most depraved and terrifying. She’s lost loved ones. Come close to death countless times. But she always manages to triumph over evil. Luther Kite is humanity at its most depraved and terrifying. He’s committed unthinkable acts. Taken human life for the sheer pleasure of it. He is a monster among monsters, and no one has ever caught him. Each is the best at what they do. Peerless. Unmatched.

Until now…

In Luther’s experience, people are weak. Even the strong and fearless break too easily. He wants a challenge, and sets his depraved sights on Jack. But with a baby on the way, Jack is at her most vulnerable. She’s always been a fighter, but she’s never had so much to fight for. So he’s built something especially for Jack. His own, private ninth circle of hell—a nightmare world in a forgotten place, from which no one has ever escaped.

It’s J.A. Konrath’s greatest heroine versus Blake Crouch’s greatest villain in Stirred, the stunning conclusion to both Konrath’s Lt. Jacqueline “Jack” Daniels thriller series and Crouch’s Andrew Z. Thomas series.

Only one can survive. And it won’t be whom you think.

If you are a more sensitive (or adventurous) reader, this handy scale rates specific categories from 1 (lowest) to 10 (highest) to give you some idea if this is your kind of book.

STIRRED by Crouch and Konrath
Bad Language – 5
Scary – 6
Violent – 8
Funny – 7
Sexy – 2

Crossovers—Blake Crouch’s Luther Kite series, JA Konrath’s Jack Daniels Mystery series, the Konrath Dark Thriller Collective, Jack Daniels and Associates Thrillers

• ISBN10: 1612181465
• ISBN13: 9781612181462
• Publish Date: 21 February 2012
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 14 November 2022
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Thomas & Mercer
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 504
• Language: English

Reviews

Jack takes a serious trip to the dark side with this book. The antagonist is about as bad as one can get. He's got his kill-on for just about every single character in the book with the exception of Jack. He wants to leave her for last. It's fairly brutal, but true to Konrath's earlier work in this series, readers are spared explicit exposure to gorry descriptors. That said, there is a whole lot of killing done in truly creative and dastardly ways.

The sequence in the killer's funhouse goes on a little longer than I would have liked, but the twist at the end makes both Jack and the reader look at the gathered evidence in an entirely new perspective. Everything we knew from page one shifts and alters what we thought we knew about the killer and his motives. This results in a creative twist that made for an interesting conclusion.