A Luca Mystery Box Set – Books 1 – 3.Det.Luca’s calling and obsession is hunting down killers. Step into his world where he risks it all to exact justice.Am I the Killer? -Kill someone and not remember?A brain injured veteran is accused of murder and has plenty of motive. He claims he cannot recall the events of the fateful night because of his injury. Is he being truthful or using it as an … truthful or using it as an excuse?
Vanished –
Obsession can be deadly.
What’s worse than a missing man?
A dead one.
Following a messy divorce and the messier death of his partner, Detective Frank Luca needed a break. He needed sunlight and clean air. He needed a re-boot. So, he’s traded the smog of New Jersey for the sun-kissed beaches of southwest Florida. Babes, bikinis, and booze.
The easy life, right? Wrong.
Working a missing persons case, Frank gets pulled back into the filth he’s tried so hard to avoid. Worse, now he’s falling for the missing man’s beautiful wife.
Who does that?
Florida may be beautiful, but its beauty is only skin deep. There’s rot under all that beauty–and death.
The Serenity Murder –
When a detective second-guesses his gut, he’ll have to get creative to catch the killer.
Luca worries cancer and divorce have dulled his razor-sharp instincts. So the detective is relieved when his next murder case seems like a no-brainer.
When the wealthy victim is found dead in her private-island home, the gold-digging husband seems like the obvious killer.
As Luca digs deeper and follows the clues, however, he uncovers a whole new line-up of possible suspects. No longer able to rely on his gut feelings, Luca puts the victim’s sordid affairs and her rivalries under the microscope.
With time running out, Detective Luca must find a way to regain his swagger and solve the case before the killer strikes again.
more
Well-written mysteries with good story lines. However, seemingly well-educated characters in the book use pretty poor grammar than one would expect.
I love that the characters in this series depict real feelings and insecurities that we experience and the different ways they learn to deal with them. They have flaws and quirks that we see in ourselves and friends and family. I’m on the seventh book in this series and I just can’t put it down. I think anyone who loves mid sized town detective investigation stories would enjoy this series.
This is a new author and genre for me. I am a big fan of Romantic Suspense and this series is short on romance. The books falls under the criminal investigation drama category.
5 Stars for Book 1 “Am I Killer?” Petrosini comes out of gate swinging, as he takes on a mystery surrounding a death where the main suspect is a former soldier suffering from a trauma brain injury (TBI). My husband is a TBI survivor, so this book hit close to home. The author deals with this misunderstood and invisible disability with respect and knowledge.
The readers are introduced to a seasoned homicide detective, Frank Luca. He has his doubts that the ex- soldier committed the murder. Luca does what he does best- a thorough criminal investigation. Luca gets totally absorbed, almost obsessed with the case. Everything else comes in a distanced second, including his marriage.
3 Stars for Book 2 “Vanished”. Everything in Luca’s world has changed except his drive to find a killer and bring justice to the victim and family. While working a missing person’s case, Luca faces a life-changing traumatic situation, that I unfortunately can relate to. The emotional scenes are well-written.
The case isn’t all that interesting and the story drags on. The only likable characters are Luca and his partner, Mary Ann Vargas.
I had a major issue that the author actually wrote about a 2 week-old puppy being given as a gift to to Robin! It’s illegal in most states, including Florida, to take a puppy from his mother and sell under 8 weeks old. This lack of judgment by the author, almost had me rating this book with 1 Star.
4 Stars for book 3 “The Serenity Murder”. The author gives as three suspects, all with means, motive, and opportunity to have murdered the millionaire socialite. Luca and Vargas do what they do best to identify the killer. However, Luca feels like he is losing his edge due to chemo brain. (I experience this, as well, and it is very frustrating.) There is a slight indication Mary Ann and Frank might be moving from strictly a professional relationship to a more personal one. I sure hope so.
I enjoyed the cases and the details involved with solving them but the main character was difficult to take seriously and was disconnected from other characters.
this book was hard to put down. Couldn’t wait to pick it up each evening when work was done.
Luca is haunted by memory of old case. We don’t really care, just focus.
I really felt like Book 1 was so all over the place I found myself skipping through it just to get to the end. Will not be reading the other two books. So disappointed.