Amazon #1 Best Selling Author – Rosepoint Publishing

Rosepoint Publishing: Five Stars

Book Blurb:

A defense attorney is prepared to play. But is she a pawn in a master’s deadly match? A twisting novel of suspense by New York Times bestselling author Robert Dugoni.

Keera Duggan was building a solid reputation as a Seattle prosecutor, until her romantic relationship with a senior colleague ended badly. For the competitive former chess prodigy, returning to her family’s failing criminal defense law firm to work for her father is the best shot she has. With the right moves, she hopes to restore the family’s reputation, her relationship with her father, and her career.

Keera’s chance to play in the big leagues comes when she’s retained by Vince LaRussa, an investment adviser accused of murdering his wealthy wife. There’s little hard evidence against him, but considering the couple’s impending and potentially nasty divorce, LaRussa faces life in prison. The prosecutor is equally challenging: Miller Ambrose, Keera’s former lover, who’s eager to destroy her in court on her first homicide defense.

As Keera and her team follow the evidence, they uncover a complicated and deadly game that’s more than Keera bargained for. When shocking information turns the case upside down, Keera must decide between her duty to her client, her family’s legacy, and her own future.

His Review:

Vincent La Russa got home late from his lecture at the Four Seasons in which he was the keynote speaker. Entering the kitchen, he found his wife dead in her wheelchair with broken glass on the floor and the house temperature at 105 degrees. He immediately exited the house and called 911 to get the police department dispatched to the scene. The hole in his wife’s head confirmed there was nothing he could do.

The story is further clouded by a history of Anne La Russa suffering from a car accident and terminal cancer. A prenuptial agreement prior to the La Russa marriage would leave Vincent penniless should he stray during the marriage. Evidence gathered by a private detective indicates that he might be guilty of such an indiscretion. He is arrested for the murder and Keera is hired to defend him.

Keera Duggan is the youngest daughter of Patrick “The Irish Brawler” Duggan. The family business is called Duggan and Sons although none of his sons went into the business. The girls: Ella, Margaret, and Keera, followed in their father’s footsteps. The youngest, Keera, swore she would never work with family but she has become her father’s favorite. The family has a serious alcohol problem.

Vincent La Russa is a very wealthy man charged with his wife’s death. Keera and Patrick are engaged to defend Mr. La Russa. The author develops his characters with careful consideration of the family dynamic. That ability engaged this reader by contrasting the Duggan family with experiences in my own family. Being one of seven siblings, I found myself identifying with the problems faced by Keera and her sisters.

This novel contains a myriad of legal wrangling and would be a good primer for anyone considering law school. The prosecuting attorney, Miller Ambrose, was a former boyfriend of Keera’s and is determined not to lose to his former lover. The family in turn is watching Keera with a jaundiced eye to see if she has a chance of winning.

I found this book to be engaging and entertaining and the twists at the end very satisfying. Read and enjoy this book and see if the ending catches you by surprise as well! 5 stars – CE Williams

[Note: The CE and I have shared a number of Dugoni’s books, including most recently both the Tracy Crosswhite series What She Found Book 9 and the Charles Jenkins series, The Silent Sister Book 3, and loved them all. Around this house we like to say, “Of course it’s good, it’s a Dugoni.” They are consistently fresh, engaging, well-crafted and well-plotted with relatable characters. This is no exception. VW]

Many thanks to Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book. Currently on pre-order.

Book Details:

Genre: Legal Thrillers, Crime Thrillers, Murder Thrillers
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
ASIN: B09V575VRP
Print Length: 396 pages
Publication Date: March 28, 2023
Source: Publisher and NetGalley
Title Links: Her Deadly Game [Amazon-US]
Amazon-UK

The Author: Robert Dugoni is the critically acclaimed New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and #1 Amazon bestselling author of the Tracy Crosswhite police series set in Seattle, which has sold more than 8 million books worldwide. He is also the author of The Charles Jenkins espionage series, the David Sloane legal thriller series, and several stand-alone novels including The 7th Canon, Damage Control, and the literary novels, The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell – Suspense Magazine’s 2018 Book of the Year, for which Dugoni’s narration won an AudioFile Earphones Award and the critically acclaimed, The World Played Chess; as well as the nonfiction exposé The Cyanide Canary, a Washington Post Best Book of the Year. Several of his novels have been optioned for movies and television series. Dugoni is the recipient of the Nancy Pearl Award for Fiction and a three-time winner of the Friends of Mystery Spotted Owl Award for best novel set in the Pacific Northwest. He has also been a finalist for many other awards including the International Thriller Award, the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction, the Silver Falchion Award for mystery, and the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award.

Robert Dugoni’s books are sold in more than twenty-five countries and have been translated into more than thirty languages.

Visit his website at http://www.robertdugoni.com, and follow him on twitter @robertdugoni and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/AuthorRobertDugoni

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Title: After You’re Dead by Cary Allen Stone

Genre: Currently #4469 Best Sellers Rank for Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, Thrillers & Suspense, Crime, Serial Killers

Publisher: CreateSpace

Publication Date: November 2016

Submitted by author for review

After You’re Dead – Cover Says It All–(Should Have Been My Clue–some how I missed it.)

I’m handicapped in that this is the first Jake Roberts book I’ve read, although “After You’re Dead” is the fifth in the series. Cary Allen Stone is an Amazon #1 Best Selling Author, and 2016 Readers’ Favorite Finalist Award for Crime Fiction and Psychological Thrillers. So when he requested a review, I downloaded and got plunked into the middle of hard-core Hannibal without realizing that was where I was going. Boy did I ever step over my line on this one!! Besides the graphic violence, there is language associated with the narcotrafficking culture!

The tension starts from the first chapter where antagonist #1 is introduced. As the rest of the story unfolds, Richard Graham hangs over your head, turning the screws.

Jake is an ex-cop coming off the death of his beloved Caitland and slowly coming to terms with the help of Katy, his dog (who proves to be an over the top anthropomorphized canine). After he left the APD, he founded a company which has gone widely successful, reaping him some insane levels of discretionary funds, which he freely uses to work his cases.

While a detective in the Atlanta PD, he’d made a LOT of contacts, some borne of grudging mutual respect and one is Pablo, leader of the MexiKings, who seeks his help when there is no one else he can think of who might be able to tackle the rescue of his wife Alana from El Chapo’s successor’s clutches in Mexico. El Mencho is worse–much worse. He gets off with the use of Richard Graham, a psychiatric escapee from the UK who would give the worst cannibalistic, necrophiliast sadist a challenge.

The plot doesn’t lag or stagnate, except perhaps in the exchanges between Jake’s plans for rescue with Pablo–Pablo getting cold feet. The characters are strong–heaven knows the author does a major job of fleshing out (oops–wrong word for this book?) his protagonist and most especially his two antagonists. Several twists are thrown in as the plot develops, not the least of which is Richard’s sideways offer in the climax or the role of Katy in his recovery.

I suspect I might have been able to appreciate Jake more had I read one of the previous in the series, though he does not come across as sympathetic for me. I managed to get through this book, as I promised I would, but this is an extreme type of serial killer, crime thriller and is not my thing.

I was given this book in exchange for an honest review. The book is well written, I’ll grant you that; just too much for me.

Rosepoint rating: Four of five stars

Author Description: Cary Allen Stone flew inside the cockpits of corporate jets and airlines where he met a man who became a mentor. He’s worked in LA doing feature films and Phoenix in Indie films, as well stand-up comedy and voice-overs for radio commercials. He achieved the endorsements of Clive Cussler and Tim Dorsey and is a proud member of the Phoenix Writer’s Club begun in the 1920s by women reporters. ©2017 Virginia Williams