Tuesday, February 25, 2020

All The Best Lies by Joanna Schaffhausen (thoughts)

Summary from Goodreads:

"FBI agent Reed Markham is haunted by one painful unsolved mystery: who murdered his mother? Camilla was brutally stabbed to death more than forty years ago while baby Reed lay in his crib mere steps away. The trail went so cold that the Las Vegas Police Department has given up hope of solving the case. But then a shattering family secret changes everything Reed knows about his origins, his murdered mother, and his powerful adoptive father, state senator Angus Markham. Now Reed has to wonder if his mother's killer is uncomfortably close to home.

Unable to trust his family with the details of his personal investigation, Reed enlists his friend, suspended cop Ellery Hathaway, to join his quest in Vegas. Ellery has experience with both troubled families and diabolical murderers, having narrowly escaped from each of them. She's eager to skip town, too, because her own father, who abandoned her years ago, is suddenly desperate to get back in contact. He also has a secret that could change her life forever, if Ellery will let him close enough to hear it.

Far from home and relying only on each other, Reed and Ellery discover young Camilla had snared the attention of dangerous men, any of whom might have wanted to shut her up for good. They start tracing his twisted family history, knowing the path leads back to a vicious killer—one who has been hiding in plain sight for forty years and isn't about to give up now."

My Thoughts:

This series has fast become a favorite of mine at only three books in!  It's also a bit hard to review books that are part of a series without spoiling anything so I'll do my best not to spoil anything.  I do think that this is a series that should be read in order if possible.  There is just so much that we learn about and that happens in the first book that continues to carry over into each book of this series.  The author does a really amazing job with Ellery.  Her past is something that she continues to deal with and grow from.  I love her character and seeing how she has changed from the first book until now.  I also really liked the mystery that this book was focused on and the spotlight it shone on Reed's character.  We have always seen Reed trying to help Ellery and the shoe is really on the other foot in this book.  I love the dynamics between these two characters and their relationship with one another.  Neither of them is perfect but they come across that much more realistically because of it.  The mystery in this book kept me guessing the entire time as always.  There was one part of it that I had mostly figured out but then a different part that I didn't see coming at all.  I'm excited to see what kind of trouble that Reed and Ellery will find themselves in next.  I really appreciate that we continually see them grow and their relationship evolve in each book of the series.  This book was definitely a page turner and the perfect way to end my reading month in January!

Overall, I'm a HUGE fan of this series and will be impatiently waiting for the next book in this series to release!  This author and her books are on my must read list because I just love this series and characters so much.  If you haven't had the chance to read this series yet, definitely start with The Vanishing Season!  Every book in this series has been at least a four star read so I just cannot recommend it enough!  Fans of mysteries, suspense, and thrillers need to check this author out!

Bottom Line:  A really great addition to one of my favorite mystery series!

Disclosure:  I received a copy of this book thanks to the publisher.  Honest thoughts are my own.

1 comment:

  1. Oh this sounds good and I love the book that finally gets to the mystery that has been haunting the detective since the beginning. I don't think I've really come across this author before so I'm excited to pick up the first book in the series.

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