A woman with a lust for risk taking… disgruntled client, an ex, a criminal, a loan shark—they all had motive to harm Beth, but the evidence against any of them is sketchy, at best.
The truth seems just out of Luca’s grasp, but he’s determined to uncover the truth about what happened the night she vanished.
With political pressure to handle the case sensitively limiting his investigation, and personal concerns weighing down on him, Luca must press ahead and trust his gut…or risk losing the perpetrator forever.
Unexpected Stakes is a stand-alone story in the best-selling, Luca Mystery series.
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In this Detective Luca mystery, our hero looks into the disappearance of the daughter of one of his boss’s acquaintances. What follows is a twisted tale that produces more an more suspects as the detective and his partner follow the trail.
I loved the careful police work, the false flags and the dogged determination that I’ve come to expect from these stories … and there’s even a hint at where the next case may take him.
If you love police mysteries, this is a good one.
This review is for the audio book.
I enjoyed this police procedural mystery. In today’s world where everybody is an amateur sleuth it’s nice to find an old fashioned police detective that doesn’t need help from civilians to solve his case and detective Luca does it in style. At one point the two detectives were looking into seven suspects, which might sound confusing or complicated but it wasn’t and made for a great mystery that will keep you guessing. The mystery was also backed up by a good home life to balance out the story and shows off the veteran food softer side. This is a great standalone story or an even better ninth book in the series.
In order to get the help from his boss he needs to solve a cold case,,Luca and his partner Derek must look into the disappearance of a young woman as a favour. With no evidence of what has happened to Beth and hours of casino video footage to go through the pair have there work cut out for them questioning all the suspects. Everybody from the abusive husband to the mussel bound boyfriend seems to be lying and time for Beth is running out. Then a body is found and Luca has to look at the case from a different perspective and is any of the suspects capable of murder? Beth was a feisty woman and attracted the wrong sort of men but which one had means, motive and opportunity?
The narrator is very gruff and some of his characters sounded a like but I liked him for the part of the veteran police detective.
I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
The reveal comes in a dramatic fashion that this author is known for throughout this enthralling series. There is no shortage of suspects. I had no idea what direction the plot would take and it kept me guessing.
In my reviews of Books 2, 5 and 6, I mentioned and gave examples of inconsistencies. Petrosini is an entertaining author, but often he can’t keep his own stories straight. That is the case once again in this book. Examples:
Per Luca, “There was no shortage of psychics and nutjobs that had called in since the case had gone public.” Than a few chapters later this-“ I had nothing to do with her going missing.” How did he know she was missing?” Why would Luca make such a comment, when he knew the case on Wade’s disappearance went public? There was also another scene with the husband’s co-workers stating they knew nothing of the wife being missing, which seemed weird since it had been on the news. Why such inaccuracies? This guy is too good of a story teller to keep making these types of mistakes. Hence, why I didn’t rate this captivating mystery higher.