When a senator’s daughter is found dead in a Boston alleyway, former FBI agent Nick Lawrence is called into action.A powerful new drug has hit the streets of Massachusetts, and overdoses are skyrocketing to epidemic proportions. Senator Buzz Litchfield’s daughter is the latest opioid death, and he wants justice. Law enforcement is being told to take the gloves off; to come down hard on the … gloves off; to come down hard on the rampant drug rings that have plagued the area.
Nick Lawrence and the Valhalla Group are tasked with taking down the distribution network, and must partner with Boston’s elite Tactical Narcotics Team to get the job done.
But just as they’re about to make a bust, things go south. And Nick realizes that in the war on drugs, corruption is everywhere. And nothing is what it seems…
BRIAN SHEA has served as both a military officer and law enforcement Detective, and his authentic works of fiction have been enjoyed by thousands. His books are recommended for readers who enjoy Michael Connolly’s Harry Bosch, David Baldacci’s John Puller, or James Patterson’s Alex Cross.
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“MURDER 8” by Brian Shea, released June 10, 2019, from Severn River Publishing.
Don’t start this book at bedtime. A former narcotics detective, Shea has spun a driving, ripped-from-the-headlines story you won’t be able to put down.
“A powerful new drug has hit the streets of Massachusetts, and overdoses are skyrocketing to epidemic proportions. Senator Buzz Litchfield’s daughter is the latest opioid death, and he wants justice. Law enforcement is told to take the gloves off and to come down hard on the rampant drug rings that have plagued the area.”
Shea’s fifth installment of the Agent Nick Lawrence series introduces readers to the myriad of personalities, motives, and perspectives involved in the dangerous underbelly of real-life narcotics sales and trafficking. He used his personal involvement in New England’s fentanyl and heroin overdose scourge to pen a frighteningly realistic portrayal of the multifaceted dilemmas facing law enforcement, the public, and grieving families left to deal with the aftermath of addiction and overdose deaths.
The primary character, former FBI Agent Nick Lawrence, has a complicated and dark past. Despite having not read the previous four installments, Shea penned MURDER 8 so well that I didn’t feel I missed any information. He did, however, offer just enough mysterious morsels of the man’s past that I now want to go back and read through the series.
Nick’s surrounded by a cast of characters that might be well at home on the Island of Misfit Toys, if its occupants were tactically proficient secret operatives hellbent on justice and willing to bend the rules necessary to bring the worst among us to their much-deserved justice. As with Nick, his sidekicks have just enough backstory to be relatable, visible, and three-dimensional. Where Shea didn’t offer exact details, he beautifully offered just enough information to allow the readers to fill in the gaps with their imaginations and personal experiences.
While the story draws heavily from Shea’s incredible breadth of knowledge, training, and personal experience, he never bogged readers down with process, procedure, and trivial minutia, which is often the tendency with crime authors. His tactical background allowed him to write characters who don’t need to tell you they’re a badass, their actions and lack extraneous self-promotion demonstrate it. As a recently established author, Shea’s hitting way above his weight class. He’s a writer you’ll want to start reading now before he’s a household name.
During my recent interview, Shea expounded on the experiences, realities, and craft study that led him to write about the overdose epidemic. Based on my own experience in that same area, I second his assertion that this is an important topic and, by extension, I offer this is an important work of reality-based-fiction that will help guide communities to meaningful civic action to aid addiction recovery and hold accountable those who deal in misery and suffering. The narcotics scenes, slang, and behaviors, I assure you, are absolutely accurate.
Shea’s next effort, which begins a new series into Boston PD Detective Michael Kelly, “a good Irish lad,” releases sometime this fall. Keep a watchful eye out for that one.