Twelve years ago, her life was torn apart. Now those who wronged her will pay.Jubilee Rathman is a straight-A student and star soccer goalie destined for Princeton—until her family is brutally murdered. Twelve years later, she lives in a virtual fortress on Purgatory Bay near Bleak Harbor, plotting revenge on the people she considers responsible.In her crosshairs is former reporter Michaela … reporter Michaela “Mikey” Deming, who Jubilee believes got her family in trouble with the Detroit mob. As retribution, Jubilee kidnaps Mikey’s sister and daughter, and that’s just the start in her ruthless quest for justice.
Bleak Harbor police chief Katya Malone, still reeling from her failure to find a kidnapped boy, leads the investigation. She’s determined to keep history from repeating, but Jubilee is more cunning than Malone can imagine.
All Mikey and Katya can do is follow Jubilee’s dangerous trail of clues. But in Bleak Harbor, nothing is what it seems, and no one can be trusted. As an ominous end draws ever nearer, the women must face the misdeeds of the past to find the kidnapping victims before it’s too late.
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Revenge Is A Dish Best Served Cold
Twelve years before the novel timeline, Jubilee, suffering from a hangover, is sitting in an iron chair in a state police office. She is repeatedly asked for her driver’s license, but she is not cooperative and wants to know why she is here. Finally, one officer shows her a picture of her dead near naked younger brother sprayed out near a pond.
Then, the main storyline shifts to current novel timeline and to a Mikey talking her daughter while driving to the daughter’s ice hockey tournament. The daughter is quite close to her blind aunt. As they drive by the aunt’s house, the aunt doesn’t appear to be home. A car pulls out in front of them and blocks every attempt to pass it. After that, they proceed to the Mikey’s father’s home where they were staying during the tournament. The main storyline splits into another thread with Jubilee and her brother who are preparing drones with various deadly weapons attached. More deaths occur seemingly unrelated to everyone but Jubilee and her brother. The novel has three basic groups of main storyline threads. The first consists of chapters in the voice Jubilee and her brother where you learn what they are doing and why. The second tread is primarily in the voice of Jubilee twelve years earlier that provides the genesis of her motives in the current timeline. The last thread is told through chapters in the voice of Mikey, her daughter, the blind aunt, the aunt’s current boyfriend, the chief of police, the mayor, a newspaper reporter, and Jubilee’s longtime lawyer. This last thread group presents the storyline by observing the events as they occur and as those characters try to find out what is happening.
From the above, you can gather that this novel has many moving parts as it jumps to a new character for each chapter. I found that the first 50% of this novel to be difficult reading because of this choppy narrative. It only was until the last half of the novel that the main storylines started to coalesce that the novel became easier to read. Then, my attention was captured, and I started to enjoy reading the novel. The first half for me was three stars and the last half five stars.
The B-storyline was very extensive for Mikey, her daughter, Jubilee and her brother. Almost all of the other characters also had a decent B-storylines. It made me think that this was the first novel in the series because of the depth of these B-storylines, but it is the second novel in the series. I have not read the first novel, but it seems that the only thing in common is the location of the novel. I could be wrong here.
This book does not have any sex scenes in it, but I noticed a little more vulgar language and references than in the novels I usually read. This may trigger some readers who may be sensitive to the use of language. There is some violence described as it happen but none of it was titillating or overly graphic.
By the end, all questions I had while reading the novel were tied up and explained. I especially enjoyed the last two chapters. While the novel did end on a high note; you will have to endure the challenging start. Above I rated the two halves. Now I rate the whole novel with four stars. I do recommend reading this book. Be persistent, you’ll enjoy it.
I have received a free e-book version of this novel through NetGalley from Thomas & Mercer with an expectation for an honest, unbiased review. I wish to thank Thomas & Mercer for the opportunity to read and review this novel early.
Purgatory Bay is quite good. A diabolical plan to get even with ones that have preceived to do a girl wrong. 12 years ago, Jubliees’ life is changed forever. Everyone thinks she has moved on, how wrong they are. The use of drones, plus other technology makes this book scary, as you think this could actually happen. Second in the series, I can’t wait to read more.
Thanks to Netgalley and author for copy.
A diabolical and complicated revenge plan to strike out against multiple “enemies” is launched creating an intriguing and entertaining plot to keep you on the edge of your seat to see what twist is coming next! Excellent character development really strengthens the plot to bring the characters and story to life! You won’t want to miss this second installment in the Bleak Harbor series! Kudos to the author for weaving a delightfully complicated story and I hope to read much more from him in the future!
This is the second book in the series but I haven’t read the first and was able to follow this one just fine. I found this to be a good story it is set in Denmark and is a murder mystery. I really enjoyed the story it was fast moving and interesting a bit tricky at times keeping track of all the ins and outs about the only complaint I have is there were way too many big big words that I had to go look up to find the meanings!! other than that I would definitely recommend this series.