Tag: graphic violence

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