Winner of the Mariposa Award for Best First Novel
Phoenix detective Veranda Cruz is dead set on taking down the Villalobos crime family, but the ruthlessness of her quarry demands a ruthless edge of her own.No one in the department suspects the real motivation behind the obsession that pits her against Bartolo Villalobos, heir apparent to a powerful criminal empire…until an operation goes … criminal empire…until an operation goes horribly wrong.
Targeted by an increasingly unstable foe, Veranda must protect her family and navigate adversaries within the force while she sets a trap for Bartolo. As the action heats up, Veranda and her new Homicide team—along with an arson investigator who kindles a flame of his own—are all drawn into a deadly gambit.
Taking down Bartolo is the ultimate goal, but is Veranda ready to trade her life for justice?
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Blood’s Echo is an excellent, riveting, and authentic police procedural set in Phoenix, Arizona written by a former law enforcement officer (hence the realism and the insider’s expertise and knowledge). The book also focuses on protagonist Veranda Cruz’s family life with just a hint of a budding, yet thwarted romance.
It’s a battle to the death between an evil drug cartel alpha boss, and Cruz, a brave and determined cop with more than a professional stake in the outcome. Cruz’s confidential informer is tortured and his body left at a secret law enforcement enclave, breaching security. Cruz finds herself the target of an internal police investigation, even as the drug cartel boss zeroes in on her with a vengeance. When her family’s restaurant is burned to the ground by the increasingly rogue cartel boss, tensions exponentially spike higher. There’s a mole in the police department, and the bad cop puts everyone at added risk. But in-fighting among the top members of the drug cartel might balance out the danger from the mole–or not.
Wonderful and authentic depictions of the camaraderie among the homicide team and between Cruz and her new partner, Sam, an aging but still able police officer, add a rich, satisfying layer to the book. Though the action might dominate, the personal relationships are a compelling and moving part of this book. The joking among the team adds not only realism, but a respite from the often-intense danger facing Cruz, and by extension, her family and co-workers.
Though Blood’s Echo is a stand-alone, it does end with both a twist and a hook. Be prepared to seek out the next entries in the series immediately upon finishing reading the first one.
Riveting, fast action, great world-building, the author’s attention to detail puts the reader right smack in the middle of the story. Author Isabella Maldonado isn’t the first to combine edge-of-your-seat tension and action with intimate family story lines, but she does this wonderfully well.
Blood’s Echo is a police procedural that is action-packed and full of suspense. In fact, I can’t think of another writer who is doing a better job at suspenseful action (move over Lee Child). This book is a page-turner for sure. We follow detective Veranda Cruz in her intensive, concentrated effort to bring down the VillaLobos Cartel which operates in both Mexican and the U.S., specifically Phoenix. For Cruz, it’s personal because the cartel is responsible for the death of a family member. She is obsessive and will do anything to take down the cartel. If you are a fan of action-oriented suspense, I can’t think of a better book for you to read.
The author, Isabella Maldonado, spent twenty years in law enforcement so she knows from the inside what it’s like to be a cop. That has its good side and its bad side for fiction writing. The good side is that we see police operations from the inside. There is an authenticity to her descriptions of police strategy, planning, actions, and departmental political machinations. The down side is that Maldonado spends the first 25% or so of the book in the police weeds telling us about departmental details that get confusing pretty quickly. She introduces so many characters at once, mostly cops, that we get them mixed up, especially when each one is referred to sometimes by last name, then by first name, and sometimes by nicknames. Considering that one of these characters is a mole, it becomes impossible for a reader to even begin to figure out who that might be. That takes some of the fun out of it for readers who like to solve a mystery.
Another price of writing an intense action-suspense novel is that the character development often suffers. Very few of the characters in this book show much depth, and that includes Veranda, members of her family and other cops. I found her partner Sam to be the most interesting person with the most depth. I wish I knew more about him. I hope he shows up in the next book.
Another issue is that there is a fair amount of really graphic violence in this book. I live in the Borderlands so I know that in real life, the cartel members are often high on drugs and extremely violent. I don’t like reading about this in novels. Others may not be bothered by this. No doubt about it. Blood’s Echo is a very authentic, action packed suspense novel that will keep you up at night wanting to know what happens next.