A car chase ending with the murder of a senior living centre employee draws Detective Sarah Burke into a chilling case where her career – and her life – are soon at risk. Detective Sarah Burke and new cop Zivko ‘Bogey’ Boganicevic are sent to an incident at Fairweather Farms senior living center in Tucson. The center’s van has suddenly been chased at reckless speed by a carload of bandits firing … carload of bandits firing high-powered rifles, and crashed into its own garage. Arriving at the scene, Sarah makes a grisly discovery: the driver, Enrique Lopez, was shot in the head during the chase. Why was a kindly man, dedicated to looking after the elderly, targeted and killed so dramatically by a team of hoodlums?
As Sarah works through her list of questions, she soon finds herself drawn into the high-stakes world of drugs, deception and mistaken identity where nothing is as it first appears, and she is forced to risk her career – and her life – in her search for answers.
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Detective Sarah Burke is a homicide detective in Tucson, Arizona. She lives with her mother, her niece and her partner, Will, an investigator with the county attorney’s office. She has worked hard to be accepted and has a strong reputation for not giving up. A man, who everyone loves, is shot to death while driving a senior citizens van. The information does not add up, but may have something to do with the increase in drug cases. Sarah makes notes of everything and relies on her “lists” but this time the “lists” are not helping. As events unfold and Sarah is forced to make a deadly decision, it seems as the case may never be solved. But Sarah doesn’t give up and she doesn’t this time either. I have read this entire series and enjoy the blended main characters and always an intriguing mystery. This time, the ending took me by surprise. Loved it! I received an advance review copy at no cost and without obligation for an honest review. (by paytonpuppy)
Detective Sarah Burke is one of the first females on the Arizona police force and it shows. She has a real problem accepting help from her colleagues ..especially the men.
Taking along new cop Bogey Boganicevic, Sarah rushes to a crime scene at a senior living facility in Tucson. The facility’s van has been chased by a car load of bandits shooting high powered rifles causing the death of the driver and a lot of damage to the van and the garage where it ended up.
Sarah discovers that the driver was not the regular driver. Ironically, the regular driver is in the hospital, being a victim in an auto accident. The replacement driver was known to be well liked, dedicated to helping out the senior citizens.
Sarah first puts a list together … questions she needs to ask and get answers for. What she finds is a pathway to drugs, drug dealers, lies and secrets. As she gets closer to solving the case, she finds a target placed on her back.
Well written, with twists and turns, and as always, people who would rather lie than tell the truth. Sarah is tough, feisty, but maybe tries a little too hard to prove herself. Bogey is at best a mediocre cop which sets Sarah’s teeth on edge, but she does try her best to be a good mentor. I enjoy the Arizona setting, as I’ve lived (not in Tuscon) in Arizona for many years. There’s lots of action leading to an unexpected conclusion.
Many thanks to the author / Severn House Publishing / Netgalley for the digital copy of this crime fiction. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.
Sarah’s List by Elizabeth Gunn a five-star read that will appear on many must read lists. This wasn’t always a five-star read, it wavered, but I gave it five overall as it did keep me hooked. This was number five in the series I didn’t realise that when I picked it up, and It didn’t bother me, as it seems like each one deals with another case for Sarah Burke to deal with. This one in particular appealed to me as I manage a type of senior living centre and know some of the things that go bump in the night there. I enjoy a good police procedural and this one did have some dips and failures at points but overall it was okay, I struggled with Sarah at points, I suspect it was as In some ways she came across somewhat like my mother and that’s not always a positive thing. Overall though I enjoyed this if I gave myself to the story and suspended my brain, I really got into it, but only then. Do give it a try if you want something to keep you guessing.
Normally, if I have a negative experience with a particular novel, I don’t give second chances to the author. (There have been a few exceptions, such as when the first novel is good but not overwhelmingly impressive.) I’ve read one of Gunn’s novels before, only I didn’t realize that when I requested this particular one. When I started reading, I looked at the list of previous titles and recognized one as a DNF from a few years ago.
Maybe it’s unfair to read/review a book under these circumstances, given that I really had not enjoyed the previous book. But I felt obligated. I’d been given a free copy, after all! So I gave Sarah’s List a chance and read the entire book.
Maybe I’m not the target audience? Or maybe I’d read too many police procedurals in the past week? Whatever the reason, Sarah’s List failed to win me over.
It wasn’t bad. But it wasn’t terrific, either. If you’re a fan of Gunn’s other work, though, don’t let this review deter you from reading Sarah’s List! It could be a mismatch of reader and book series.
CHARACTERS
Sarah is the main issue. I never warmed to her. In fact, I never got a true sense of her personality, as if I missed some key aspect of her Sarah-ness.
The little I did grasp isn’t . . . I’m struggling to find the right word. Sympathetic? Interesting? Distinctive? None of these quite fit. But whatever makes me, as a reader, emotionally connect with a character, isn’t there. That’s a major flaw for me.
She’s one of the first females on the Tuscan Arizona police force, and it shows. She doesn’t like accepting help from her male colleagues, even when they offer in goodwill; and while this makes sense, it sometimes borders on arrogance. She is tough, a real badass, but so are dozens of other female cops in current fiction series. What makes her different from the others?
The other big characterization weakness is her family. Sarah lives with her boyfriend (whom she refers to by his first and last name), her depressed mother, and her 12 year old niece Denny. They’ve shown up in previous books, including the earlier one I read.
I never found Denny believable as a preteen. Granted, she’s more mature because of her absent mother’s drug addiction. Even so, her character never acts preteen-ish enough to be convincing and there are a number of odd details that didn’t add up.
And this is nitpicky, but . . . when Sarah thinks about how Denny is growing up, she thinks that she needs to “get her out of braids” and take her to a hair stylist for a hairdo. That may look caring, but it also looks controlling and arrogant, as if it doesn’t matter whether or not Denny herself wants a change of hair styles. (Ask me how I know this, and you’ll hear about a disastrous perm I received for my 12th birthday “present”.)
PLOT
It is an interesting enough premise. But somehow it never delivered for me. There are the usual roadblocks from uncooperative characters, all of which are obvious. The climax seems to pass almost without me noticing it. I could tell that the book was building the action up, ramping up the stakes, and then it was over, almost before I noticed it. It was really disappointing.
NARRATIVE
Now, for the good points.
Elizabeth Gunn is a seasoned writer, that’s obvious. She knows how to plant clues in plain sight, lead the reader on various rabbit trails, and create interesting side characters. I particularly liked Gloria, a crime scene photographer; Delaney, Sarah’s boss; and Jason, another homicide detective. There’s also a bothersome, overly-chatty neighbor that sends Sarah’s mom into a tizzy.
Despite my disappointment with the lackluster climax, I did find certain aspects of it unusual. There were several other moments when a plot turn caught me by surprise.
The writing quality was terrific, of course, as I would expect from a novelist with multiple published books to her credit. Polished and precise.
3 STARS
While Sarah’s List disappointed me, not everyone shares my taste in book. Again, maybe I wasn’t the target audience. Maybe I simply read too many engrossing page-turners in the previous few weeks to enjoy the book or find the twists surprising. Maybe I was tired of reading. Who knows?
Whatever the reason, I found Sarah’s List to be an average police procedural. While I never emotionally connected with Sarah, other readers may. If you’re already a huge Elizabeth Gunn fan or adore the other Sarah Burke mysteries, you may really like this one.
Thanks to Netgalley and Severn House for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.