“Don’t think you’re untouchable…you or your son.” Then a dial tone..
Shrewd, hardened New York homicide detective Jasmine (“Jazz”) Steele’s just come back from a grisly crime scene involving the body of a brutally-beaten young girl, the second she’s investigated this week. That was horrendous, but with these eight words, ending ominously in “your son,” Jazz’s immediate fear is for her vulnerable … Jazz’s immediate fear is for her vulnerable nephew, Chase, who’s already been through hell in his seven short years. In Kimberly Amato’s hard-boiled yet deeply emotional police procedural, no one is spared tough breaks and turbulent anguish. A lesser cop than Jazz would barely be able to cope.
A year ago, a gruesome car accident claimed the lives of her only brother and his wife, making her the de facto mother of 7-year-old Chase. The sudden household change ended in the loss of her life partner and still best friend, chic police psychologist Frankie, not to mention the dashing of Jazz’s lifelong dreams of becoming a successful mystery novelist. Now every day is a battle against Chase’s demons—and her own.
Quick reconnaissance reveals the call wasn’t a clever joke courtesy of Hadley, Frankie’s droll actress roommate, nor was it Victor, the wry police department coroner who happens to be Jazz’s confidante. Further detective work shows the caller wanted Jazz to find him—along with the fresh dead body he left for her in a Harlem warehouse.
With a shadow on Chase and the aid of Frankie’s grace-under-fire, not to mention Victor’s brandy-fueled heart-to-hearts, Jazz–who has more ‘tude than even the toughest investigator, male or female–navigates the cruel streets of New York City while struggling to keep custody of the only family she has left, doggedly in search of the elusive, psychopathic murderer who seems to be summarily killing off women who look suspiciously like someone close to Jazz… and she’s not willing to lose yet another person she loves.
Fans of the exciting new wave of hard-boiled women sleuths created by writers like Megan Abbott, Laura Lippmann, Lisa Lutz, and Vicki Hendricks will be attracted to the author’s take-no-prisoners style, and her unflinching attention to harrowing detail.
Yet lovers of traditional mysteries will appreciate the web of fierce loyalty tempered with fearful caution that links Jazz’s tiny but hardy support system—Victor, Frankie, and Hadley, not to mention Chase himself. Somehow or other, Amato manages to mix all the excitement of an action thriller with the swirling emotions of a mainstream psychological novel.
Those with a weakness for badass female cops like Mary Shannon of In Plain Sight and Olivia Benson of Law & Order SVU will revel in Jasmine Steele’s gritty determination laced with compassion. Readers of lesbian mysteries will be reminded of Sandra Scoppettone’s Lauren Laurano and Laurie R. King’s Kate Martinelli.
And it’s also a great read for fans of resilient heroines of psychological thrillers like Liz Keen of The Blacklist and Carrie Mathison of Homeland, who will love Jasmine Steele’s fearlessness, tinged with the very real emotional roller coaster of love turned to grief.
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The story itself was okay but the editing was atrocious. The publishing company should be embarrassed for not catching and correcting before publishing. Spelling was correct but the context in which words were used were incorrect on just about every other page. For example a sentence like, “We went to interview the witness.” would read, “We gave to interview the witness.” It became quite annoying so I quit reading the book.
The story line of the book was damaged by the fact no one proof read it. There were many misspelled words causing me to go back and reread sentences. Also incorrect words that were close to what were meant but made no sense. The book could have gotten a five star rating but not in this condition.
Alphabet soup and word salad. Couldn’t get beyond the first 30 or so pages, it’s so poorly written. Spelling, grammar, and syntax all sucked. A 3rd grader could more ably compose a story. Supposedly the ‘original’ manuscript was ‘uploaded’ in error. This comes to light some 3 yrs after it’s publication. Author has stated a professionally edited and corrected version is available and yet still the reviews bemoan the horrors of the first version. Clearly not an author or one that cares much for their craft.
Great weaving of the plot.
Not your typical feel-good mystery; may be a little dark for some readers as the main characters are not perfect and have issues. That being said, it is realistic and provides a good plot that holds your interest. I have read a couple of books in the series and it helps to read them in order as some of the plot is continuous (though the previous plots are at least partially explained).
good red
Still reading this book. Not sure yet what I think of it.
The editing was by far the worse I have ever seen. So bad I could not complete!
The Kindle version had so many misspellings and grammatical errors, I found it completely unreadable.
excellent
Just finished this book. There was a little too much human interaction for my taste. Who ever proof read the book should be fired. A lot of typos.
Could have used an editor a lot of typos that remind you of spell correct gone rogue
I couldn’t finish the book.
Poorly proofread. Too many grammatical errors to finish reading. Very disjointed.
Liked the characters…
Too many errors
The only problem with this book is the amount of grammatical and typographical errors. I found it very distracting when trying to lose myself in the book.
Good story. Excessive profanity.
I had a hard time getting through this book. The plot and characters were fine but there were so many grammatical errors, misspelled words, or wrong words inserted for another due to spell check that I couldn’t hardly read through the book without getting very irritated and frustrated. This book needs to get a good editing and then republished.
This story kept me reading all day and into to night.