Crime on the Fens (DI Nikki Galena #1) by Joy Ellis

Book Description:

Published: June 17, 2016

Format: Audio/OverDrive

THE DETECTIVE DI Nikki Galena: A police detective with nothing left to lose, she’s seen a girl die in her arms, and her daughter will never leave the hospital again. She’s got tough on the criminals she believes did this to her. Too tough. And now she’s been given one final warning: make it work with her new sergeant, DS Joseph Easter, or she’s out.

HER PARTNER DS Joseph Easter is the handsome squeaky-clean new member of the team. But his nickname “Holy Joe” belies his former life as a soldier. He has an estranged daughter who blames him for everything that went wrong with their family.

THEIR ADVERSARY is a ruthless man who holds DI Galena responsible for his terrible disfigurement.

The town is being terrorised by gangs of violent thugs, all wearing identical hideous masks. Then a talented young female student goes missing on the marsh and Nikki and Joseph find themselves joining forces with a master criminal in their efforts to save her. They need to look behind the masks, but when they do, they find something more sinister and deadly than they ever expected . . .

THE SETTING
The Lincolnshire Fens: great open skies brood over marshes, farmland, and nature reserves. It is not easy terrain for the Fenland Constabulary to police, due to the distances between some of the remote Fen villages, the dangerous and often misty lanes, and the poor telephone coverage. There are still villages where the oldest residents have never set foot outside their own farmland and a visit to the nearest town is a major event. But it has a strange airy beauty to it, and above it all are the biggest skies you’ve ever seen.

Review –

This is my first read/listen by this author and I loved it for so many reasons. First, it’s a foreign crime drama (takes place in Eastern England), second, the protagonist is a female Detective Inspector, and third, the story line isn’t new but it’s been revamped so you would think it IS new.

Nikki and Joseph make a great team, and I’m hoping some where down the line they become more than just co-workers. Nikki is like a loose cannon and he calms her down a bit.

The author  wove the threads of the story with just enough twists to keep me listening, not so much as to what was going to happen but in how she was going to bring things together. As with any good series the ending leaves a teaser that does make you want to read the next book. 

Five stars. I can’t wait to read the next one.

 

 

 

Tyrant (King #2) by T.M. Frazier

Book Description:

Published: August 16, 2015

Format: Audio/Audible

I. Remember. Everything.

Only now I wish I didn’t.

When the fog is sucked away from my mind like smoke through a vacuum, the truth that has been beyond my reach for months finally reveals itself.

But the relief I thought I would feel never comes, and I’m more afraid now than I was the morning I woke up handcuffed in King’s bed.

Because with the truth comes dark secrets I was never meant to know.

I will put the lives of those I love most at risk if I let on that my memory has returned, or if I seek help from the heavily tattooed felon who owns me body and soul.

I don’t know if I’m strong enough to resist the magnetic pull toward King that grows stronger every day.

He’s already saved me in more ways than one. Now it’s my turn to do whatever it takes to save him.

Even if that means marrying someone else…

Review –

Holy Cow! I didn’t think anything would top King, but I was seriously wrong. Tyrant was even better than the first book. T.M. Frazier has added so many twists and turns to Tyrant.

Tyrant picks up right where King left off. King has returned Pup AKA Ramie back to her family in exchange for his daughter, Max. Although he reasoning’s are just, for Pup it felt like a betrayal. Pup has no memory of her past she trusted and believed he loved her. Now she is back with “her family” and for her they are strangers, unknown and she feels out-of-place. Pup struggles to remember anything about her past, her home, her family and her finance Tanner. Although Pup has no memory of Sammy she knows for sure he is her son. When she looks at him she sees a piece of her in him and she feels deep in heart that he is her child. I felt for Pup she tries so hard to put the pieces of her vague life together while being a good mother for Sammy all constantly remembering King.

King is King, I love him even when I hated  his actions. I loved this character. Never once did King’s character change. He was still KING. He knows in time he would have gone after his Pup. He thought he was doing the right thing. There is danger from an incident that happened in the first book. One that is determined to make King pay. If we all know King, he never backs down. Come on he is the KING! King was going to go after Pup and remind her that she belongs to him and that he would be back. She is everything to him and he won’t let anyone keep him for her. We get to see a new side to King. A primal side in him, his alpha male ways are heightened even more since learning about Tanner. (Gag, Tanner)

Let me say things took a turn to the dark and crazy side after King gets to Pup. This was basically Pups story, in her trying to piece together her past. I was so involved when she had would remember something, that I was taking notes. MY heart broke for Pup because you can see her struggle to try to find where she fits in and it saddened me when she only needed King. As I mentioned King is still Badass so when he finally figures out what is going on, there is no stopping him. 

This book is super violent and the author leaves nothing to the imagination and there may be triggers for some readers.

Although this book ends King and Doe’s story it’s not an easy one to read or listen to. Be prepared.

Five stars.