Reviewed by Melanie on
This is book three in a trilogy suspense series that Kelley Armstrong has been working on for a while, book one was published in 2007. The main character, Nadia Stafford, is a former cop who went rogue and killed an unarmed suspect. When she is forced to leave law enforcement, she buys a wilderness lodge in Ontario. It eventually falls on hard times, she takes a job as a hit man to help pay the bills. Throughout the series we spend time with her hitman mentor, Jack, his mentor, Evelyn, and a US Marshall, who is also a part-time hit man Quinn.
At the beginning of this book, Quinn and Nadia have just ended an attempt at a relationship, or at least Nadia considers it ended. Quinn isn’t quite as sure. Jack contacts Nadia because he has found the person believed to have killed Nadia’s cousin, Amy, when she was a teenager. Nadia had also been kidnapped at the same time. She barely escaped with her life, but when she sent her cop father back to cabin, Amy was already dead and the suspect was gone. They do eventually catch him, and there is a trial. But he is acquitted. When Jack finds this killer, someone has already killed him before they get there. They do find his journal and Nadia has to come to some hard truths about her past.
It takes Nadia, Jack, Quinn and Evelyn a long time and many dead ends before they finally figure out who was the killer. There are many twists and turns and you will keep guessing until the end. I was surprised with many of the things that are uncovered in throughout the story. I don’t want to give any parts away, so I won’t go into much more of the plot. Just know that you don’t get from point A to point B in a straight line.
Although, this series isn’t really a romance or a paranormal, which is what I normally read, it is a great series and I recommend it. I probably wouldn’t have tried it if it was a different author, but I’m a huge fan of Kelley Armstrong and thought I would give it a try. I’m really glad that I did. I really like Nadia and Jack, especially. Evelyn is pretty funny too. There is a ton of action with a great story, which you’ve come to expect from Ms. Armstrong.
This is the first of the trilogy that I’ve done on audio. At this time, book one is been published on audio, but I don’t think book two is out yet. I’m sure it will be, but just isn’t done yet. I enjoyed it on audio. Jack has a gruff Irish brogue that I enjoyed. Nadia is Canadian and you could hear the accent on occasion. The rest of the voices were pretty normal, but were distinct and done well.
Originally posted at Hotlistens.com
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 2 December, 2013: Finished reading
- 2 December, 2013: Reviewed