TWISTED TRUTH

4 stars out of 5

I'd be remiss if I didn't thank one of my cousins for alerting me to this book (and ultimately, the series) - she knows I'm a fan of two other nature and wildlife agents, Paul Doiron's Mike Bowditch and C.J. Box's Joe Pickett and that I'd be delighted that a woman is getting a chance to shine in that capacity. And yes, I liked it enough to order the next three in the series as well as the soon-to-be-released fifth (arguably, most are short enough to qualify as novellas, so they're easy to read from a length standpoint).

To the author's credit, it didn't take long
for me to become a fan of Amy Rush, a Nature and Wildlife Reserve District 03 special agent (somehow, I must have missed the location - assume she's in the United States somewhere). Largely tutored by her much-loved late father, also an agent, she's an ace shot and skilled in combat techniques. Her partner, Ryan Brooks, isn't as physically competent, but rather more tech-savvy. They're working for a sourpuss supervisor, a woman who rarely shows her human side.

As she was finishing up her usual wilderness hike early one morning, Amy almost literally runs into a man who seems out of his mind and screaming. After getting him to calm down a bit, she learns he's just found two girls in the woods - both bloodied and clearly dead. Back at the station after the mess has been cleaned up and the girls identified, Amy is introduced to Ernest Stone, an FBI special agent to whom she takes an instant dislike (oh gosh, there's a surprise). But while he seems happy enough to let Amy take the investigative lead and any credit, he clams up when it comes to admitting why he's really sticking his nose in where Amy thinks it doesn't belong.

Clues are hard to come by, but three heads are better than one so eventually they converge on a promising lead. Of course, more than that I can't reveal except that the investigation doesn't go without a serious hitch or two before the case comes to a fitting conclusion. It also brings insights to what may come in the next book (nope, can't talk about that, either).

One thing I do hope, though, is that the next books have the benefit of more copy-editing and fact-checking (simply too many glitches for me to overlook, prompting me to drop a star in the rating, although I do admit to being picky about such things).

Twisted Truth by  (Ava Strong, March 2024); 147 pp.