Alex Troutt thriller #12

Redemption Thriller #24

I join those saying “Wow, what a way to end a series”.

Mr. Mefford brings to a close his series with all the impact of all the previous books put together. Murders in at least three different cities, how many will die before the killer is caught?

What a thrilling ride and a fitting end to a wonderful series. Ivy, Alex and Ozzie can never get a break and people close to them are being murdered some attacked. The action and suspense never let’s go and I was on the edge of my seat from beginning to end. They are so many possibilities; it is hard to know who can be trusted even which direction to turn. The story literally sends chills through you….. The full series is one huge emotional rollercoaster and the finale takes it all.

Alex Troutt, Ivy Nash and Ozzie Novak Thrillers are under the same Redemption Series umbrella and through each sub-series these characters appear in the other novels. We become familiar with them as they experience their fair share of murder and carnage. It is nice to know they play a part in each other series.

I am sad to see the end of this series but happy to move onto the Ivy Nash series and see how Mr. Mefford will entertaining me next….definitely expecting once again to be completely enthralled into a heart-pumping action suspense.

Thank you, Mr. Mefford for providing a copy of the 12 books in the Alex Troutt series for my honest opinions. In simple words I loved them all.

It began the night we died on the Kamikaze.

- First sentence

 

 

This is a great Creepy Carnival book. Blake, his brother Quinn, and their friends Russ & Maggie end up trapped in an otherworldly carnival. The only way out is if they can ride seven rides before dawn. But each ride taps into one of their biggest fears, and no one has ever escaped before...

I enjoyed this one. It was fast-paced and creepy with a satisfying ending. It doesn't take long to get to the carnival part and I enjoyed watching Blake try to figure things out. 

I read this one for the Creepy Carnivals square:

I'm reading this for the Creepy Carnivals square:

Danny Boyle grew up in Sea Haven, NJ -- a tourist trap of a town on the Jersey Shore. He likes the life -- hanging out with the friends he's had since high school, goofing around, eating and drinking more than he should. He's got a nice Summer gig -- working as a Part-Time police officer. The downside is his partner -- John Ceepak, an Iraq War vet and former MP. He's so by the book, he might as well have written it. The Sea Haven chief served with Ceepak and offered him a job when he was done with the Army. After an incident (IED-related), Ceepak can't drive anymore -- which is where Danny comes in.

It's not an ideal working relationship, but Danny can put up with Ceepak's eccentricities well enough. Until one day their pre-shift breakfast is interrupted by a girl covered in blood, standing in the middle of the street screaming. Ceepak jumps into action, and Danny tries to keep up. The girl takes them to the local amusement park, to the Tilt-a-Whirl ride, where her father lies shot dead. They'd snuck in before the place opened and had been held up by some junkie hiding near the ride. Or so she reports later. Her father owns half the real-estate in NY and NJ (or so it seems), sort of a would-be Trump, so his murder is big, big news.

Ceepak and Danny have to deal with media attention, annoying lawyers, gang members possibly trying to go straight, local politics, a Crime Scene Investigator that's more of a hindrance than a help, and Danny's inexperience if they're going to solve this murder and let Sea Haven get back to what it does best in the summer -- taking in every tourist dollar that it can.

The book is told with a light touch -- Danny's a smart-aleck and is (truthfully) too immature for his job; which is bad for the populace of Sea Haven, good for the reader/listener. But the lightness never gets in the way of the seriousness of the initial murder, and the crimes that follow.

Woodman is exactly the narrator that this book needed -- he's able to sound the right age for Danny, the right attitude, everything (apparently, he does a lot of YA Audiobook work, that makes sense to me). Until I heard Woodman, I hadn't thought what a challenge it might be to get just the right narrator for this. Thankfully, I noted that with a strong sense of relief, because man...he was so good.

The Ceepak books were one of those series I fully enjoyed, and had forgotten how much I had liked them since I (apparently) finished the series. This audiobook helped me remember how much I missed reading them. If you haven't gotten around to them, you should -- either as an audiobook or text -- Ceepak and Boyle are some of the most entertaining police officers around.