Author: Brian Freeman
Published: November 1st 2022 by Blackstone Publishing
Format: Hardcover, 350 pages
Genre: Police Procedural
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: Jonathan Stride #11
First Sentence: The man with the briefcase sat on a bench in the drowning rain.
Blurb: A woman has been kidnapped.Now Jonathan Stride must decide if her husband wants her back ... dead or alive.
After nearly dying of a gunshot wound, Jonathan Stride has been on leave from the Duluth Police for more than a year. When his partner, Maggie Bei, gets called about a suspicious abduction involving a local lawyer, she tells Stride it's time for him to come back.
Attorney Gavin Webster says he paid $100,000 in ransom money to the men who kidnapped his wife. Now they've disappeared with the cash, and she's still missing. Gavin claims to be desperate to find her--but Stride discovers that the lawyer had plenty of motive to be the mastermind behind the crime.
Even as Stride digs for the truth about Gavin Webster and his wife, he must also deal with a crisis in his own marriage.
His wife, Serena, is struggling after the death of her mother, the abusive woman she hadn't seen in twenty-five years. When she loses control at a crime scene and draws her gun on a fellow cop, Serena finds herself kicked off the Webster case. Alone at her desk, she begins hunting through old police files and starts to ask questions about a mother's death that was written off as suicide. That death haunts Serena like an echo of her own childhood--but her obsession with it takes a terrible toll.
As Serena shuts him out of her despair, and his own investigation grows increasingly tangled, Stride wonders whether going back to his detective work was the right decision. But all he can do is keep moving forward. Because Stride fears the Webster kidnapping may be only one part of a horrific murder conspiracy.
And it's not over yet. (GoodReads)
My Opinion: What is there not to love about a Brian Freeman novel? Anyone familiar with the author’s work knows there will be two or more differing storylines, as unrelated as they can be, which will soon converge; you don’t know when or how.
For me, Strider’s storyline took a backseat, and Serena took centerstage. While reading this book, you discover that you will not like all the characters, but they play their part in bringing Serena long-deserved peace.
While Serena may have to begin again, with her support team in place, she will thrive.
Blurb: A woman has been kidnapped.Now Jonathan Stride must decide if her husband wants her back ... dead or alive.
After nearly dying of a gunshot wound, Jonathan Stride has been on leave from the Duluth Police for more than a year. When his partner, Maggie Bei, gets called about a suspicious abduction involving a local lawyer, she tells Stride it's time for him to come back.
Attorney Gavin Webster says he paid $100,000 in ransom money to the men who kidnapped his wife. Now they've disappeared with the cash, and she's still missing. Gavin claims to be desperate to find her--but Stride discovers that the lawyer had plenty of motive to be the mastermind behind the crime.
Even as Stride digs for the truth about Gavin Webster and his wife, he must also deal with a crisis in his own marriage.
His wife, Serena, is struggling after the death of her mother, the abusive woman she hadn't seen in twenty-five years. When she loses control at a crime scene and draws her gun on a fellow cop, Serena finds herself kicked off the Webster case. Alone at her desk, she begins hunting through old police files and starts to ask questions about a mother's death that was written off as suicide. That death haunts Serena like an echo of her own childhood--but her obsession with it takes a terrible toll.
As Serena shuts him out of her despair, and his own investigation grows increasingly tangled, Stride wonders whether going back to his detective work was the right decision. But all he can do is keep moving forward. Because Stride fears the Webster kidnapping may be only one part of a horrific murder conspiracy.
And it's not over yet. (GoodReads)
My Opinion: What is there not to love about a Brian Freeman novel? Anyone familiar with the author’s work knows there will be two or more differing storylines, as unrelated as they can be, which will soon converge; you don’t know when or how.
For me, Strider’s storyline took a backseat, and Serena took centerstage. While reading this book, you discover that you will not like all the characters, but they play their part in bringing Serena long-deserved peace.
While Serena may have to begin again, with her support team in place, she will thrive.
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