Under the Radar (A Zoe Chambers Mystery Book 9)

Author:  Annette Dashofy
Genre:   Mystery

Hardcover; Trade Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #:  9781635115789; 9781635115758
Henery Press Publishing
288 Pages
$31.95; $15.95; $4.99 Amazon
February 25, 2020

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Paramedic and deputy coroner Zoe Chambers responds to a shooting and discovers her longtime friend, Horace Pavelka, has gunned down a man who'd bullied him mercilessly for decades.  Ruled self-defense, no charges are filed.  When another of his tormentors turns up dead in Horace's kitchen, Police Chief Pete Adams questions the man's innocence in both cases...especially after Horace and his girlfriend go into hiding.

While fighting to clear her friend, Zoe is handed the opportunity to finally learn what really happened to her long-lost sibling.  What starts out as a quick road trip on a quest for answers leads her to an unfamiliar city in the middle of a November blizzard, where she finds way more trouble than she bargained for.

Pete's own search for his missing fiancée and a missing murderer ultimately traps him in a web of deception.  Face-to-face with one of the most cunning and deadly killers of his law enforcement career, Pete realizes too late that this confrontation may well be his last.

✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽

Zoe Chambers is a paramedic and deputy coroner in Monongahela County, Pennsylvania.  Her fiancé Pete Adams, is the sheriff.  When she learns there's been a shooting - and her longtime friend Horace Pavelka is the shooter, she and her partner Earl run to the scene.  The dead man, Dennis Culp, has a history of bullying Horace.  When Pete learns from everyone around that Dennis was beating on Horace's car with a baseball bat and threatening him, it's apparent that this was self-defense.  He also learns that Culp and his friends the Jennings brothers have been bullying Horace since he was in school, it's no surprise he carried a gun to protect himself.  But when another body shows up in Horace's kitchen, and he disappears along with his girlfriend, Pete knows this wasn't self-defense and begins to wonder if Zoe's belief in Horace's innocence is true.

We also learn that Zoe might soon be out of her job as deputy coroner, since her boss is up for election, and the man running against him will do everything to put him - and Zoe - out of their jobs, if he can.  Then, an old journalist friend turns up and offers to help Zoe find her long-lost half-brother.  After her last encounter with someone who claimed to be just that, she's not sure she wants to find out.  It's also a surprise, to say the least, when her mother Kimberly shows up with her cousin Patsy and is determined to plan Zoe's wedding - in Florida.  Between being railroaded by her mother, her belief in Horace's innocence, and deciding to look for her brother, Zoe has no idea that the road she's taken is going to put her in mortal danger...and Pete, too...

I've read every book in this series and they just keep getting better.  I've watched Zoe as she goes through her emotional and mental changes; as she's learning to deal with her past and embrace her future.  It's been an interesting ride, like being on a roller coaster that stops every time you reach the top before going back down again.

Ms. Dashofy is one of the most talented writers I've ever come across.  Her stories do not disappoint, and they bring you into the lives of Zoe and the people around her.  What is surprising, however, is how you can start out disliking one character so intensely, and then just when you least expect it, that character does something to completely redeem them.  (If you want to know who and what, you need to read the book.)

This was once again a book filled with suspense - and we are wondering, along with Pete, if maybe Horace actually did snap and kill the second person.  The clues are there pointing toward him, and we have the same doubts as Sheriff Adams has along the way.  It's an intriguing tale, and just when you think it's leading in one direction, you discover it's venturing somewhere else entirely - and there is a 'wow' moment near the end that brings it all together and comes completely out of the blue, stunning both Zoe and the reader.

With all the twists and turns, it eventually threads together in the end, giving us a completely satisfying tale that is worthy of being read again.  This was an engrossing book that I read in one sitting (without even getting a second cup of coffee!); it was that good.  The characters leap out at you from the page, giving themselves life and pulling you into the story effortlessly.  I look forward to reading the next in the series.  Highly recommended.

https://www.amazon.com/Under-Radar-Zoe-Chambers-Mystery/dp/1635115752/ref

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3175766505

More on Annette Dashofy's Books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/d/annette-dashofy/

Fair Game (A Zoe Chambers Mystery #8)

Author:  Annette Dashofy
Genre:   Mystery

Hardcover; Trade Paperback
ISBN #:  9781635115024; 9781635114997
Henery Press Publishing
286 Pages
$29.80; $15.95 Amazon
May 14, 2019

✮✮✮✮✮

Paramedic Zoe Chambers hoped a week at the Monongahela County Fair, showing her horse and manning the ambulance, would provide a much-needed diversion from recent events that continue to haunt her.  An old friend, a bossy nemesis, and a teenage crush from her 4-H days fail to offer the distraction she had in mind.  But ever the caregiver, she soon bonds with a troubled teen and a grieving father.

Back in Vance Township, a missing woman turns up dead, leading Police Chief Pete Adams into a journey through her mysterious final hours.  With each new clue, the tragic circumstances of her death grow increasingly muddied.

A cryptic phone call leads Pete to join Zoe for an evening at the fairgrounds where the annual school bus demolition derby concludes with a gruesome discovery and a new case that may or may not be connected to the first.  Pete's quest for the motive behind two homicides -- and Zoe's stubborn determination to reunite a family - thrust them both onto a collision course with a violent and desperate felon.

✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽

Zoe Chambers is a paramedic in rural Pennsylvania.  She owns a farm that needs work before she can move in, but it is where she houses her beloved horse Windstar.  Her cousin Patsy is showing her own horse Jazzel at the county fair, and has convinced Zoe to do the same.  Because of this, Zoe has volunteered to work her shift at the fair, which will allow her to do both.

Zoe is also an ex-4H member who learned under Diane Reynolds, who is still teaching and at the fair.  She's also surprised to find out that her ex-crush Cody DeRosa is the judge, and quite a hit with the ladies.  Add to that an old nemesis in Merryn Schultz, a woman who's been in and out of jail and whose teenaged son is at the fair hanging out with her partner Earl's boys, much to the dismay of his mother.  You would think this would be enough to keep Zoe busy, between her horse and work, but more awaits her...

Meanwhile, Pete Adams, Zoe's boyfriend and Vance County sheriff, has received a visit from a businessman informing him of an argument at a local hotel where two men were talking and one threatened to kill someone.  Pete, of course, is going to investigate and see if there's anything to the threat, but doesn't expect much will come of it.  Then he receives a phone call from a local waitress of an abandoned car.  When he investigates that, he discovers the body of a woman in the brambles of wild roses.  It doesn't take long to find out she's Vera Palmer, and her husband Jack is at the fair.

When Pete locates her husband through Zoe, he's devastated by the news.  Jack had recently helped Zoe corral a young girl's runaway pony.  Zoe, also a deputy coroner, wants to attend the autopsy to find how Vera died.  For all intents and purposes, it appears she was struck on the back of the head and fell into the brambles.  But who would want to kill this woman, who apparently had no enemies?  From everything Pete has learned, she wasn't much of a drinker, and everyone liked her.  Yet there's a body in the morgue that states at least one person wasn't happy with her...

Zoe's also had an offer that could change her life forever - and Pete's, too; and Pete has a decision of his own to make that will change their lives regardless of the outcome.  With both of them wrestling with their personal dilemmas, it only adds to the chaos going on around them, including another relative of Zoe's, who surprised her by showing up and telling her she was getting married.

When there's another murder at the fairgrounds and Zoe discovers it to be someone she knew long ago, she can't imagine anyone wanting him dead, either.  But it soon becomes more of a puzzle than she thought when both she and Pete start coming to the conclusion that the two deaths might be related.  Their personal lives are on hold while they try to find out the truth and discover why two people have died who didn't seem to have any enemies at all...

I loved this book.  The story line was intriguing, and there were plenty of subplots that wove themselves in with all the threads beginning separately and twisting together slowly.  Starting with the beginning thread - a man reporting a possible murder - it began a chain of events that deliberately initiated this thread and made for a riveting tale that keeps one engrossed in the tale.

Zoe's wrestling with the decisions she needs to make in her life coincide with the decision that Pete needs to make in his.  While Pete's is almost immediate in the story, it takes some time before we get to Zoe's.  But we find that both of them are wondering about the path their lives will take if changes are made; and we also see that both of them - without actually speaking to each other about it - are committed to the fact that whatever decisions are made, they aren't willing to do so without considering the other person.  It's done so well that you would think the author was actually on speaking terms with both Pete and Zoe (which, of course, Ms. Dashofy is indeed); and it attests to the fact that she knows her characters well and their actions and reactions to any situation.

The same can be said about these characters regarding the deaths of two people; Zoe and Pete have very different reactions but it all winds up in the same place.  Yet Zoe has more on her plate by far, and she's trying very hard to do the right thing while questioning her own judgment.  It's a dark place she's in, and not one in which I would want to find myself.

I love Zoe and Pete, and even Wayne.  You can easily tell that he value's Pete's friendship and his input.  Zoe and Pete are intelligent, caring; while Pete can keep his personal life out of his professional one, Zoe differs in that she allows her emotions to enter into her actions.  Never does it infringe on her professional status as a paramedic/coroner, but it attests to the fact that because chosen a career in which she helps others that she is also willing to help others in her daily life.  It makes for two very dynamic people who are very different externally and internally.

The story was taut and written well; the mystery itself was quite different and believable; while there were a few red herrings strewn about, the ending came as quite a surprise and was both sad and bittersweet, making one wish the outcome could have been different while understanding just the same.  Yet there was still another surprise to come that gives us something to look forward to in the next in the series.  Highly recommended.

https://www.amazon.com/Fair-Game-Zoe-Chambers-Mystery/dp/1635114993/ref=

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2779529384

More on Annette Dashofy's Books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/d/annette-dashofy/

Cry Wolf (A Zoe Chambers Mystery #7)

Author:  Annette Dashofy
Genre:  Mystery

Hardcover; Trade Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN:  9781635113952; 9781635113921
Henery Press Publishing
276 Pages
$31.95; $15.95; $6.99 Amazon
September 18, 2018

✮✮✮✮✮

Rural Pennsylvania's Vance Township Police Chief Pete Adams is down an officer and has been dealing with extra shifts as well as a pair of bickering neighbors, one of whom owns a machete and isn't afraid to use it.  Golden Oaks Assisted Living is outside Pete's jurisdiction, but a murder in the facility his Alzheimer's-afflicted father calls home makes the case personal.  Paramedic and Deputy Coroner Zoe Chambers has been itching for an opportunity to take the lead in a death investigation.  She gets her chance when her boss is hospitalized and not only assigns her to the Golden Oaks homicide but puts her in charge of the county coroner's office.  As if she doesn't have enough to handle, a long-lost, over-protective, older half-brother walks into her life threatening to drive a wedge between her and the man she loves.  A second body leads them to realize the case may have dark ties to a distant past...and if Zoe doesn't untangle the web of lies, Pete will be the one to pay the ultimate price...

✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽

Zoe Chambers, paramedic and deputy coroner, has been working overtime in Vance Township.  Her boyfriend, Police Chief Pete Adams, has been doing the same since he's down one officer, a young man who had to take a life not long ago and has been having trouble dealing with the aftermath; even though in doing so he saved Zoe from certain death.  But when the coroner becomes ill, Zoe is temporarily promoted into the job, giving her even more responsibility.

When Zoe and Pete are visiting his father at Golden Oaks Assisted Living, Pete sees a retired officer he once knew, John Kinney, and they begin to catch up on old times.  But when the man is discovered dead shortly after their meeting, at first it's considered a terrible accident.  But after Zoe finds out the truth - that he was smothered - it becomes an entirely different ballgame.

To add to this, they get a call about a man using a machete to attack another man.  When they arrive, they find that the machete-wielding man was merely protecting his horses - the self-named professor had been throwing mown grass over the fence and the horses, if they ingest it, could become ill or die.  The professor either doesn't understand or doesn't want to, but they diffuse the situation as best they can.  Pete also discovers that the professor's wife is none other than Kinney's sister.

But then comes the biggest surprise of all - Zoe receives a cryptic message from a man named Jason Cox, and when she returns the call she learns she has an older half-brother she never knew about.  While Pete is suspicious, he does a background check - without Zoe's knowledge - but can find nothing incriminating in the man's past.  And after meeting Jason, Zoe is convinced he's the real deal.  But when Pete meets him, there's quite a bit of friction, almost like Jason is baiting him.  Pete doesn't like him, but won't disillusion Zoe.

But it still rankles when Jason decides to help out Zoe in more ways than one, it begins to cause unspoken problems between Zoe and Pete.  Then there's another murder, and Pete, who isn't conducting the investigation at the nursing home because it's out of his jurisdiction (that's left to county detective Wayne Baronick) begins to wonder what the two murders have in common.  Just as he's getting closer to finding the truth, it becomes apparent that there's more at stake than finding Kinney's killer.  In fact, it could be his own life...

This is the seventh book in the Zoe Chambers mystery, and I am delighted to say that while other series are losing their momentum by this time, Ms. Dashofy has somehow managed to keep this one feeling as fresh as the first.  There is no loss in characterization and no loss in keeping her readers engaged in the story.

Zoe and Pete are barely settling into their new life together - Zoe has agreed to live with Pete but still has issues she needs to move past in order to embrace their future together when a brother she never knew she had steps into the scene.  While it seems wonderful for her; she's never had a real family since her father died when she was eight and her relationship with her mother is strained at best, it's an entire different story for Pete.  While Jason doesn't come out and say he dislikes Pete to his face, it's apparent this is true, yet Zoe is completely oblivious of this fact, her newfound happiness masking everything else.

Zoe also has two murders to deal with, one where she's working with Detective Baronick, much to Pete's displeasure, and one where it's in Pete's jurisdiction, Pete also has to deal with the fact that his deputy Seth is dealing with heavy guilt and he needs help, even if he doesn't want to admit it.  Baronick suggests his sister Abby who's unhappy in her current department and Pete's willing to give her a chance, even if it's only as part-time.

As you can tell, there are a lot of things happening that somehow manage to slowly connect together, much like a puzzle where you've never seen the picture but must still figure out a way to put the pieces together.  Twists and turns abound with everything culminating in a suspenseful encounter that keeps you riveted to the tale right through the last pages.  This book is indeed a worthy addition to the series and I look forward to the next.  Highly recommended.

https://www.amazon.com/Cry-Wolf-Zoe-Chambers-Mystery/dp/163511392X/ref

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2533560001

More on Annette Dashofy's Books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/d/annette-dashofy/

Uneasy Prey (A Zoe Chambers Mystery Volume 6)

Author:  Annette Dashofy
Genre:  Mystery

Hardcover; Trade Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #:  9781635113235; 9781635113204
Henery Press Publishing
286 Pages
$31.95; $15.95; $6.99 Amazon
March 27, 2018

✮✮✮✮✮

On the way to the emergency room, an elderly woman regains consciousness long enough to inform paramedic Zoe Chambers that her fall down the basement steps was no accident.  Before she can say more, she succumbs to her injuries, launching Zoe and Police Chief Pete Adams into the investigation of a burglary ring targeting the area's vulnerable senior citizens.  Zoe - in spite of Pete's objections - takes it upon herself to act as protection detail after the con men, disguised as water company employees, set their sights on Zoe's beloved former landlady.  It's a decision that eventually puts Zoe in harm's way.  With Zoe already recovering from one close call, Pete must race against time to stop the crime ring - and a dangerous killer - before they strike again. 

✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽         

Zoe Chambers is a paramedic in Pennsylvania.  Just as she's back to work after recovering from an injury, she receives a call that an ambulance is needed at elderly widow Oriole Andrews' home.  When she and her co-worker Earl arrive, they find Oriole at the bottom of the basement stairs, where she's apparently taken a nasty fall.  Oriole's granddaughter Janie is distraught and tells them she found her that way.  But on the way to the hospital, Oriole regains consciousness and tells Zoe she was pushed; but dies before she can tell them who did it.

Concerned, Zoe shares this information with Police Chief Pete Adams, who is also Zoe's live-in boyfriend.  What Zoe learns later is that con men posing as water department employees are targeting elderly people and burglarizing them.  When Zoe's friends the Krolls have a run-in with the thieves, Zoe decides to temporarily stay with them to keep them safe.

But Pete has problems of his own.  His sister Nadine is falling apart caring for their elderly father Harry, who has Alzheimer's, so makes the decision to put him in an assisted-living facility.  The one she's chosen is Golden Oaks, and it's as nice as they come, even though Pete knows Harry would still be happier at home.  But just when he thinks it's not going to work out, Harry sees his across-the-hall neighbor Barbara and becomes instantly smitten.  So, for the time being at least, Pete's mind is at rest.

But then the retired town police dispatcher Sylvia makes a call to the station that the con men have come to her home, too, and Zoe and Pete rush to her side.  While there, she has what appears to be a heart attack, and while they're at the hospital, she's also burglarized.

Not to help the situation is a reporter who's come to town, Lauren Sanders, and she won't give up on the case.  She's there at every turn Pete or Zoe makes, and they begin to wonder how she knows what's going on and why she's around every corner.  They wonder if she's involved somehow; and Janie's son Marcus is getting into fights at school, which only complicates things.  Now Zoe and Pete both have their hands full, trying to find these guys and handle everything before someone else is killed...

I have always enjoyed the Zoe Chambers books; and each time I read one I remember why.  The plot is well-thought out and the characters are full of life.  Zoe and Pete have their new live-in relationship pretty well navigated, and now they have new problems with needing Pete's dad to go to a new place to live and Zoe worried about the Krolls, her ex-landlords.  It doesn't help that Oriole's granddaughter's son is acting up at school, nor that attractive reporter Lauren Sanders appears to be flirting with Pete in order to get information.  Along again is Monongahela County Detective Wayne Baronick, who's also investigating the burglaries, and while sometimes a thorn in Pete's side, he's grateful that Wayne's there to help.

Pennsylvania's winter countryside covered with snow cannot be easy to navigate, and can be treacherous; and Ms. Dashofy's descriptions are vibrant and enough to make you feel the cold along with the characters.  The people in the book seem real and convincing; each has a definite personality and draw you into the book along with them.

The mystery itself is woven tightly and with many threads; when it at last all comes together and you see how everything - even what seems trivial - connects, it is definitely a pleasing outcome to an admirable story.  Ms. Dashofy is an excellent writer with a broad imagination that makes you want to read her books more than once.

At the end, it is rather sad on the paths life can take us, and how even the smallest decision can color everything we do.  While sadness does reign, there is also happiness to be found, and this was indeed a very good book and I look forward to the next in the series.  Highly recommended.

https://www.amazon.com/Uneasy-Prey-Zoe-Chambers-Mystery/dp/1635113202/

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2323037100

More on Annette Dashofy's Books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/d/annette-dashofy/

No Way Home (A Zoe Chambers Mystery Book 5)

Author:  Annette Dashofy
Genre:  Mystery, Suspense

Hardcover; Paperback; Audio CD; Ebook
ISBN #:  9781635111804; 9781635111774; 9781541457287
Henery Press Publishing
256 Pages
$26.87; $15.93; $29.99; $4.99 Amazon
March 14, 2017

✮✮✮✮✮

A relaxing trail ride turns tragic when Paramedic and Deputy Coroner Zoe Chambers discovers the body of a popular county commissioner in her Pennsylvania woods.  Inconsistencies surround the horrible accident, but before she can investigate further, she's pried away by a plea for help from her best friend whose son has been deemed a person of interest in a homicide over a thousand miles away.  When he vanishes without a trace, his mother begs Zoe to help clear him and bring him safely home.  The task takes Zoe out of her comfort zone in a frantic trip to the desolate canyons and bluffs of New Mexico where she joins forces with the missing boy's sister and mysterious young Navajo.

Back at home, Vance Township's Chief of Police Pete Adams must deal not only with the commissioner's homicide, but with an influx of meth and a subsequent rash of drug overdoses in his rural community.  Bodies keep turning up while suspects keep disappearing.  However little else matters when he learns that half a continent away, a brutal killer has Zoe in his sights.

********

Zoe Chambers is a Paramedic and Deputy Coroner in Vance Township, Pennsylvania; and she also runs a boarding stable.  So when one of her boarders' horses returns riderless, Zoe sets out to find the man she hopes is merely injured.  But instead she finds the body of County Commissioner Dale Springfield, and at first glance it appears his horse was spooked and he fell and hit his head.  Yet when Zoe does a preliminary examination, she thinks the body is colder than it should be for a recent accident, and wonders about the time of death.

Yet Dale's death might not be an accident after all - the town is divided on a company that wants to do local fracking - and Dale was definitely on the 'no' side.  So who will benefit the most if and when the deal goes through, and did anyone hate him enough to want him out of the way permanently?  With a host of suspects but no solid clues, Pete has his work cut out for him on this one.

There is also another problem going on in their town - young people are overdosing on heroin and meth, but Sheriff Pete Adams isn't sure which one is the culprit, or where the teens are getting their drugs.  Even with the help of Detective Wayne Baronick - a sometimes-thorn in Pete's side - every lead they have runs down to a dead end.

But even with these crimes going on, Zoe's put front and center in another investigation.  It seems her best friend Rose's son Logan has disappeared out in New Mexico - right after his girlfriend's body was found in the desert; he's not answering his cell phone, and it turns out that law enforcement aren't the only ones looking for him.  Roped into traveling to the Southwest with Rose's family to help search for Logan, Zoe, although thousands of miles away, might just find that distance doesn't keep danger from finding you...

No Way Home is the fifth book in the Zoe Chambers mystery and in my opinion, so far it's the best of the group (which is a pretty feat, considering the other four were quite good themselves).  We start out with several deaths in Pennsylvania that may be linked somehow, and then follow Zoe in New Mexico on her quest not only to find Logan, but get answers as to who murdered his girlfriend.  Rose is frantic with worry and convinced that the boy she loves like a son is innocent, it's up to Zoe - with the help of Logan's sister Allison - to find out the truth of the matter.

The author switches deftly from the scenarios going on in both states without skipping a beat.  You are at first in rural Pennsylvania, with its rolling hills, brisk snowy weather, and close-knit community of people, then are transported seamlessly to New Mexico, with its jagged mountains, bright sunrises, and desert terrain; and people as mysterious as the mountains themselves - a new experience for Zoe.

Still, with each mystery going on separately yet at the same time, we are drawn deeply into the multifarious story line, anxiously awaiting the outcome of both. Without giving too much away, let it be known that while there are plenty of twists and turns along the way, Ms. Dashofy spins a tightly-knit tale that delights the mind with vivid descriptions of regions and people, bringing it to life.

When at last we reach the end of the story it comes together beautifully; and as we learn the truth it is altogether believable and well-composed; with a gamut of emotions that elicits the same from the readers of the story.  Highly recommended and I look forward to the next in the series.

https://www.amazon.com/Way-Home-Zoe-Chambers-Mystery/dp/1635111803/

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2017956408

More on Annette Dashofy's Books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/d/annette-dashofy/

With a Vengeance (A Zoe Chambers Mystery #4)

Author:  Annette Dashofy
Genre:  Mystery

Hardcover; Paperback; Ebook
ISBN #:  9781635110203; 9781635110173
Henery Press
272 Pages
$31.95; $15.95; $4.99 Amazon
May 3, 2016

Five Stars

Paramedic Zoe Chambers and the rest of rural Monogahela County's EMS and fire personnel are used to wading into the middle of trouble to rescue the sick and the injured.  But when someone with an ax to grind seeks retribution by staging accident scenes and gunning down the first responders, Zoe finds herself forced to not only treat her own brethren of the front lines, but also, in her role as deputy coroner, seek out whoever is killing her friends.  At the same time, Vance Township Police Chief Pete Adams races to track down a gun, a mysterious all-terrain vehicle, and the sniper before Zoe goes back on duty, placing herself - and Pete - firmly in the gunman's crosshairs.

********

Zoe Chambers is taking a Citizen's Police Academy class when a chilling call comes in to Pete Adams, Vance Township's police chief and Zoe's boyfriend.  He motions for Zoe to go with him, and what they find isn't pretty:  two of Zoe's fellow paramedics have been ambushed, leaving one of them dead and another seriously injured.  But things get worse the next night when two firefighters are ambushed, again leaving one dead and another injured.

They now know there's a sniper out there gunning for first responders, but who?  And why?  Pete does what he can: while searching for the killer, he orders his officers out on all calls with the medics and firemen, but even he knows it's only a temporary fix.  And he can't help worrying even more because Zoe is one of those medics.

His only leads are a local wanna-be thug who seems too dumb to be true, and eventually someone a little closer to home, who may also not be the right person, but Pete can't afford to take chances.  At least he's got help from the county, with Detective Wayne Baronick on his side, but it doesn't seem to be enough, and Pete is rushing against the clock to find the killer.

But Zoe has problems of her own:  she isn't finding much time to spend with Pete, and she's also pretty much homeless:  with her home destroyed by fire, she's taken refuge with a friend, Rose, but even though they've known each other their entire lives, Rose is a recent widow, and things don't go as swimmingly as planned...

I loved this book.  It has all the elements of a great read:  intrigue, suspense, a little romance, and not one, but two intelligent protagonists.  Ms. Dashofy's characters are warm, palpable, well-defined people you'd like to know and spend time with.  The writing is full of dynamism and energy; it makes you want to read non-stop until the book is finished.  You feel involved in the action, and that is a very good thing indeed; it shows a flair for writing and making the words and characters come alive on the page.  If a series can indeed get better with the passage of time, Ms. Dashofy proves it to be true.

When we reach the end of the book and the killer is finally revealed, it puts together a twisted plot from a deranged mind that even as it makes sense, leaves one feeling with a sort of sorrow that someone could be driven to the edge of insanity for more reasons than we can imagine.  It is, however, an extremely satisfying ending, in more ways than one, even while leaving questions for the next in series, which I greatly anticipate.  This is the fourth book in the series, although it can be read as a stand alone.  Highly recommended.

https://www.amazon.com/Vengeance-Annette-Dashofy/dp/1635110203/

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1671596550

More on Annette Dashofy's Books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/d/annette-dashofy/