Fatal Justice
Fatal Series bk 2
Marie Force
Supreme Court nominee Julian Sinclair comes to Washington expecting to be confirmed to the high court. Instead, he’s found shot execution-style in a city park. Detective Lt. Sam Holland’s list of suspects is long, but does it include her significant other, Senator Nick Cappuano, one of the last to see Sinclair alive? While tracking down Sinclair’s killer, Sam is also confronted with a new lead into her father’s unsolved shooting that leads to unexpected danger for her. In the meantime, Sam’s partner, Detective Freddie Cruz, returns to the “scene of the crime” when he looks up Elin Svendson, one of the late Senator John O’Connor’s sexy ex-girlfriends. After a lifetime of virtue, will Freddie be led down the road to ruin by a temptress who wants only one thing from him?
I am not a big political thriller fan unless there is a good romance in it and the characters are ones that I connect with. In Marie’s Fatal Series I get both, there is a great romance and I connect completely with Sam.
Sam and Nick are on the verge of making a major change in their relationship and Sam coming from an horrible past relationship is a little gun shy. As she is coming to terms and trying to figure just what she is capable of in her relationship with Nick she gets two cases that pull her in different directions.
At the scene of a domestic disturbance that turned deadly the find a box full of newspaper clippings about her father’s shooting. The whole department thinks that they finally have their man. While they are underway on this investigation, one of Nicks mentor’s is found murdered execution style.
As Sam focuses on these two cases it pulls them in different directions. Nick wants Sam to commit to him completely by moving in with him, while trying to deal with not only losing his best friend to murder, but now one of his mentors as well. He wants Sam with him, but he knows that she is also a cop, and he has to learn how to deal with that.
Sam wants to finally solve her father’s case, and find the person that killed Julian, and be there for Nick, and is playing a balancing game that she is unused to. As she goes along however she has to come to terms with her past, and embrace the future, all while trying to solve a murder.
One of the things I like about this series is that I can relate to Sam on a very personal level. One of the things that she feels defines her is her endometriosis and infertility. When I read those scenes and see her struggle I know exactly what she is going through because I have been there. Nick’s reaction to it is the same that Mike’s was. When you have a series that has the same couple as the main characters in the book you have a book that is the turning point for them in their relationship, and to me that is this book for Nick and Sam. Both of them go through some major relationship changes and emotions while dealing with the outside world and their jobs. Learning how to combine the two successfully.
This series also has a great cast of supporting characters.
Grade B+
This book is an ebook only
**Do you like series where it is the same two main characters in each book and we get to see them grow or do you prefer that each book in the series has different main characters? One lucky commenter will receive a grab bag of books from us.***
I like both. Most Urban Fantasy are ongoing series with the same main characters, like Kim Harrison for instance. And I like learning more about their private lifes. Or like the In Death series by JD Robb, which is still going strong after almost 40 books.
But then I also love series like those by Christine Feehan, where each book has its own heroes, and the previous and next ones appear as side characters.
I like both, too. I’m more familiar with series that feature different couples in each book, but I’m enjoying Allison Brennan’s Lucy Kincaid series that will follow her and her boyfriend Sean.
If the story is good, I like it, no matter the format, but honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever read a series that I would classify as a romance about the same characters that was more than 1 book long. It is always a subplot to the mystery or fantasy or whatever. If a series rages on too long, the series that is about the same core group of characters (enough to be interesting, not too many to be confusing) always fares best. The “new couple every book” types get so completely bogged down in too many characters, ones who’ve already been in books and one’s that are set ups for future books, that they become boring and repetitive.
While I can enjoy both ways, truth be told, I prefer series where each book has different main characters. Those characters being the secondary characters from the previous book, and the previous book’s characters taking a background role in the new book. I absolutely love J. R. Ward’s BDB series, and my preference for writing styles reflects that.
I like both, but I prefer series books where each book has a different main character. It makes things even better when the new main characters are secondary characters from previous books and the previous main characters are in a background roll in the new books. N J Walters’ Jamesville series is a perfect example of my favorite series books.
I just read a series, The Brides of Culdee Creek, by Kathleen Morgan and she focused her main characters, each, from the main family. Everyone was intertwined through the series but each story was their own focused in that book. In each book she touched back briefly on the characters as they had come to be known.
I’ve also read books like, The Trailsman, by Jon Sharpe where there is the one specific man, but he has a completely new story from book to book.
I like both. If they’re done well, they win my purchase and time.