Thursday, May 23, 2024

The Deepest Kill

Title: The Deepest Kill
Author: Lisa Black
Published: February 20, 2024 by Kensington
Format: Kindle, Hardcover 320 Pages
Genre: Mystery
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: Locard Institute Thriller #3

First Sentence: Wednesday, Day One. “He’s lying,” Rachael Davies said.

Blurb: For software pioneer Martin Post, the third richest man in America, his private compound on the Florida coast is a sunny no-man’s-land separating his family from the rest of the world. Now, expert forensic analysts Ellie Carr and Rachael Davies of the renowned Locard Institute have been summoned to its dark side.

Martin’s pregnant daughter, Ashley, had ventured on a day trip in her motorboat into the Gulf, only to wash up dead on a nearby shore. Although the local coroner determined her death was an accident, Ellie and Rachael soon confirm Martin’s gravest fear: His daughter was murdered. Was it a kidnapping gone wrong? Or something even more brutal? Ashley and her husband, Greg, had been working working with Martin on a revolutionary new defense initiative for the US military – could espionage have played a part in her death? Martin believes Greg is behind the murder, and the spoiled charmer does set off Rachel’s deception radar. If the widower didn’t kill Ashley himself, why isn’t he more upset that she’s dead?

Drawn into the Posts’ increasingly dangerous family dynamic, Ellie and Rachael must work hard and fast to discover what secrets are buried at the heart of the crime. Because the churning waters of the Gulf are getting rougher. And soon, Ellie and Rachael themselves will be in danger of getting crushed in their depths. (GoodReads)

My Opinion: Having barely made it through the previous installment in the series, What Harms You, which nearly became a DNF, I hesitated before diving into this latest offering.

Thankfully, The Deepest Kill opened with a slightly more promising start. Yet, the author’s fondness for excessive detail veers into overkill. Yes, I appreciate thoroughness, but do I need a description of a bathroom faucet?

And then there’s the unnecessary filler that weighs down the narrative. Additionally, inconsistencies crop up all over the place, and the plotting takes shortcuts, leaving me wondering how to connect the dots.

This is where I will be jumping off the Lisa Black / Locard train.

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