Tag: Suspense

With book one of this novella series ended, it really left off at a cliff hanger. So naturally I had to know what happened next and here we are. This whole series appears to be mostly novellas though I think the other two books (books 3 and 4) are separate standalone novellas, books 1 and 2 are connected. Honestly I don’t know if I would have kept reading the series if it hadn’t ended on a cliff hanger. While I adore Laura Griffin and basically anything she writes, I don’t love novellas.

Novellas are really a challenge for me. They seem to work better as filler stories between larger books or between established characters. For example if there had been a novella about Elizabeth LeBlanc FBI agent and Derek in the Tracer books. But having novellas with new characters without established back stories is pretty hard in my opinion.

But Griffin is so talented at writing intense thrillers full of interesting facts, angles, and plots that I couldn’t pass up just one more book by this author! But that said I am not sure I will continue with books 3 and 4 of this series. I enjoyed my time with Emma and Ryan but novellas just feel too underdeveloped for me. That said this was a good read and it had a solid conclusion that left me feeling satisfied but also wanting more if that makes sense. Allow me to elaborate!

I think I have officially wrapped up one of my last Laura Griffin books. I might read the Alpha Crew novella series and I know there are a couple other smaller series that she wrote which I might also pick up. But as far as the principal books she has written, I think this was the last one. Some of her books have been better than others but I can fully stand behind Griffin being a five star author and all of her series being five star as well.

For some readers, they might find some of the characters off putting, or maybe the chemistry between the characters was a little wanting but overall you cannot deny her superior knowledge of forensics, police procedure, law, and of course military and terrorism. She is an absolutely fantastic writer and researcher and I have never found one of her books wanting in the research or pace categories. They are always interesting and read super quick.

I literally picked up a different book to read (different author) the other day when I was done with this book and I felt lost. The style of the other author was thick and cumbersome and I longed for another Griffin book that was quick, to the point and fast moving. I mean I have been reading Griffin’s books since basically October with a couple of other authors sprinkled in so it was a little jarring to read something more dense. That’s one of the reasons I love Griffin’s books, she is to the point and you get right into the story and they move FAST

Do you ever read and book and think to yourself—-wow this didn’t age well. I love Laura Griffin and have nearly read every single one of her books. I have loved them all for different reasons. Sometimes in her Tracer books, the technology has changed so much from the mid 2000’s and sometimes it feels a little antiquated or old but I still always find something to love in the mystery itself even if the technology might be out of date. But in this one, it isn’t the technology that’s out of date.

I will get more into that in a minute. What made me want to read this particular book is seeing Fiona in other books by Griffin. I thought she had a pretty cool job being a police sketch artist. That’s a job I never thought too much about but when I read about her in some of the other books I was really intrigued by how one becomes a police sketch artist and how they come up with their drawings etc. In this book as well as another, Griffin does a really good job of explaining how artists work with the victim. Now I have no idea if that’s legit but it sounds plausible and believable so that was the big thing that appealed to me about this book.

I was going to take a break after reading all the Griffin standalones, but who am am I kidding, I won’t stop until I have read ALL of her books at this point. So here we are, I am almost there and so far have yet to find a book that I truly haven’t liked. There were some parts or characters that I like and didn’t like for various reasons but overall I have loved all of Griffins books!