TO DIE FOR

5 stars out of 5

Any book by this author is sure to be a treat for me, and this - the third in the series featuring ex-Army Ranger Travis Devine - certainly doesn't disappoint. This time out, he's been called to Seattle to protect 12-year-old Betsy Odom, who recently lost both her parents to drug overdoses. He's a bit reluctant to become a glorified babysitter or do anything that puts him in a spotlilght, especially since his recent encounter in Switzerland with the "girl on the train" that nearly cost him his life.

But duty calls (or more to the point, his boss, so off to Seattle he goes. Betsy's long-lost uncle, Danny Glass, wants her to come live with him. But despite having more riches than King Midas (or maybe because of it), Danny is under FBI investigation for RICO violations that could put him behind bars for a very long time. The FBI has an agent on the scene guarding Betsy, but there's reason to believe Betsy may not be safe so they're hedging their bets by having Devine run interference.

Almost from the start, though, Travis senses something's wrong. To begin with, Betsy - who was with her parents when they suddenly convulsed and died - insists they never did drugs. Further, the official record notes that Betsy herself administered Narcan to try to save them - a claim she disputes as well. The police in the tiny town in which the parents died, though, insist they investigated thoroughly and indeed, drugs were involved. But after meeting with a couple of the Odoms' friends who are hanging out in their house, Travis is even more convinced that some kind of cover-up is in place - perhaps an extensive one that reaches far beyond the local cops and might even (gasp) put him in the crosshairs of that mysterious girl on the train once again.

All told, it's quite an intriguing adventure, and now that it's over, I'm once again hoping the next installment will come sooner rather than later. Meantime, thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for allowing me to read and review a pre-release copy of this one. 

To Die For by David Baldacci (Grand Central Publishing, November 2024); 424 pp.

THE INVESTIGATOR

5 stars out of 5

As a longtime reader of this author's series featuring U.S. Marshals Service officer Lucas Davenport, I'm familiar with his adopted daughter Letty, who comes from a troubled background (to say the least) but has thrived under the care of Lucas and his physician wife, Weather. Now, she's 24, a college graduate and off on her own working in a ho-hum job for a U.S. Senator. When he learns of her unrest, he gives her an assignment of looking into the theft of oil from several Texas companies. The amount of oil missing and how much money the thefts amount to - chickenfeed in the overall scheme of oil industry profits - aren't of serious interest, but the senator is curious about where the profits are going and wants to make sure it's not to a right-wing militia group.

In part because Letty is still green around the ears when it comes to investigative skills, she's teamed with John Kaiser, a Department of Homeland Security investigator. At first, she's not delighted with that and neither is he, but they manage to put those feelings aside and, ultimately, develop real respect for each other (if it matters, he won me over as well). The thinking is that a woman who runs a far-right website and a male accomplice may be behind the thefts; when Letty and John head for Texas and find a couple of dead bodies clearly related to the two suspects, it moves into the sure-thing department and the chase is on. 

But exactly who they're chasing and what they're planning to do isn't quite so clear; all Letty and John know for sure is that many lives could be in the balance if they can't figure it out in time. Readers, of course, come along for the ride as chapters shift from the perspectives of the heroes and villains before reaching an explosive conclusion. From this reader's perspective, it was a heck of a journey - during which Letty earned her investigator stripes and made a believer out of me. Already, I'm looking forward to her next adventure. Meantime, thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review a pre-release copy of this one. Well done!

The Investigator by John Sandford (G.P. Putnam's Sons, April 2022); 400 pp.