Category: Book Review

In this book, we meet Detective Sean Byrne. Well that’s not quite accurate, we met Sean in a couple of other books prior to this one and he is always portrayed as the cocky devils advocate. At least that’s how I read him. I wasn’t really a fan of him in previous books but at the same time I was intrigued a bit by his character so when I saw he was getting his own story I was excited to reconnect with him and see what he was like as the hero.

Brooke was also in a couple of other books but we barely get a glimpse of her beyond just a passing nod. Not in the way we see series favorites like Mia, Alex, or Kelsey. So I was excited to read and get to know Brooke as well as Sean plus the summery promised a shocking carnage of a crime scene and the macabre in me was like—-do tell me more.

This book really reminded me of an episode of Law and Order SVU, especially with the way things wrapped up. In this book we get to know the ADA (Rachel) a bit, not necessarily as a main or even secondary character but this book clearly has an ‘order’ part to it in a way that many of the other books do not. In the other books its about forensic evidence helping solve the crime and the police investigating. In this book we have that but we also have the added layer of how to secure a warrant etc. That’s what made this book stand out for me.

Throughout this series the stand out hero for me has been Derek from a few books back, as for stand out story, all of them have been so complex and interesting that it’s hard to pick a favorite. The last couple of books in the series have been a but disappointing in the romance category so I wasn’t really sure about picking this one up. I recalled Scott from a couple of books back but he didn’t really stand out to me as a swoon worthy hero.

I briefly skimmed the summary of this one mostly just looking for who the main characters were because I already know that Griffin’s mysteries never disappoint so knowing that I don’t really need to read the summary. So when I started this one I was like oh ok it’s featuring Scott and Daniele (Dani) as the principal characters—cool—and more or less went in blind.

When the book opens, I was instantly hooked on the mystery (as per usual), it features a double homicide that leaves two lovers dead in a local park. Dani is taking the lead of this case and it’s her very first so the pressure to perform and solve the crime is intense. Especially with the interesting twists the case quickly takes. Griffin does such an outstanding job at drawing readers in and leaving them eager for more about the case, victims, and of course the detectives and investigators that do all the leg work. But what grabbed me unexpectedly was the intriguing chemistry between Dani and Scott.

Laura Griffin really has a way of getting under your skin. Her mysteries always leave me more aware of cars following me, my cyber security, being on alert for terrorists, and of course watching out for stalkers who might tamper with my home security. She has such a great way of tapping into the very real fears that women live with—make sure you have a peephole, always check the inside of your car, have a home security system, keep your hedged trimmed etc. This book left me chilled to the bone even if I didn’t understand half of what was going on.

This book takes a much more techy turn. Up until now this series has been more about police procedures and DNA evidence but now Griffin has taken a new approach and moved into the world of cyberspace. As always I am amazed by the amount of detail and research that Griffin puts into each one of her books but this one really dove into the world hacking and frankly I was lost but I still loved the mystery and couldn’t put it down.

Every time I pick up one of her books, I am blown away by all the little details right down to the jargon. But she rarely makes readers feel overwhelmed or confused by the evidence or the police procedures. I will say this is the exception. I am not a hacker and I don’t know a lot of computer security but that is a huge theme in this book, but I think that Griffin did a good job dummying it down for readers who aren’t as familiar with technology as others.

Having met Mark Wolfe, FBI Profiler, a few books back I was excited to meet his brother, Liam, in this book. Liam is a former Marine and I loved that this book had this great military angle along with a twisty murder mystery. All in all I was stoked to get into this one, not to mention Griffin has a break out series based on Liam’s security company, Wolfe Security Series. I plan on reading the Wolf Security series once I am done with the tracers series.

In this book we are introduced to potential characters in the Wolfe Security series so that made me excited since this series is winding down I think (there are only 13 books so far). I was fully primed to fall head over heals with Liam but then when I started reading this one, something just felt off. I don’t know that I loved this one as much as I loved others in the series but that’s ok because overall this series is a killer (pun intended!). I think what did it for me was the lack of chemistry between Tara and Liam. For me there wasn’t enough romance to be fully believable.

My biggest take away from this book, was the excitement over the Wolfe Security series by Griffin. Other than that it left me feeling a little meah. It had a dark and twisty mystery which I really enjoyed by Tara and Liam just didn’t mesh for me which made it a little hard to enjoy the romance parts of the story. But I will say the mystery saved this one for me as the mystery was certainly dark and had a lot to uncover and try to sort out. As always Griffin delivered on that front!