Exposed (Tracers, #7)

Wow. Have I been MIA or what!? I’ve continuously been reading, but haven’t been taking the time to write up my thoughts on a bunch of books. So my goal tonight is to schedule a bunch of posts…here’s hoping I follow through.

This post focuses on the novel, “Exposed,” by Laura Griffin. It is book 7 in the Tracers series. Exposed centers on Maddie Callahan, a forensic photographer from the Delphi Center, and Brian Beckman of the FBI.

You see, Maddie doesn’t only take photographs of crime scenes. She also has a side hustle doing photography for weddings. After one of her drawn out engagement photo shoots Maddie is attacked. When she was going over the crime with the police afterwards she assumed it was just another random mugging. However, Brian quickly figured out the attackers were after the camera, not Maddie or her belongings that were tossed away nearby.

Brian thinks the crime sounds familiar to a string of crime he’s been tracking for the past decade. As multiple attempts are made to steal the camera from Maddie, Brian gets closer to her, and gets to know her. He falls hard for her, but Maddie continuously rejects him because of her past history of a broken marriage because of a lost child. But as usual in this series, the characters can only say no for so long before they finally break down to their inner desires. Brian helps Maddie come to terms with the losses that she has experienced, while also solving the crime.

Overall this was an interesting read, and I enjoyed reading about the background stories of the two characters. I felt like they weren’t your average lead characters that you typically read about.

Twisted (Tracers, #5)

Hi readers–I’ve been a bit MIA lately…things have been a bit crazy lately–good crazy though. I spent a week in Arlington, VA for the Computers in Libraries conference which was a lot of fun, and I learned a ton too! But, this isn’t the time for excuses on my not posting–it’s time for my review on Twisted, the 5th installment in Laura Griffin’s Tracers Series.

Twisted centers in on detective Allison Doyle. Detective Doyle is the rookie that was reassigned to the homicide unit after her help in the university shooting case over the summer. Now, she’s the only one that doesn’t believe that a young woman’s murder was as simple as it appears to the rest of her department. As she tries to make her case with her department, experienced FBI profiler, Mark Wolfe arrives on the case, and he’s on Doyle’s side. Wolfe has been chasing a killer for the last 10 years of his career, and he believes the killer has struck again. As he mentors Allison through the case, he also falls for her.

Most of the book shows the two characters falling for each other in secret, hiding their feelings from each other for several reasons. As the case gets ever more dangerous, it becomes harder for the two to hide their feelings for each other, eventually leading to them coming to terms with their feelings.

Although I enjoyed the novel, I didn’t like it as much as I have liked others in this series. I find this entertaining because as I report my ratings on Goodreads, I see that others rated Twisted higher than others in this series. I guess that really proves that every book has its reader!

Do you think every book has its reader? And, as always–Happy reading!

PS–Although I haven’t been writing, that doesn’t mean I’ve slowed down on my reading. I’ve got several posts to catch up on!

Snapped (Tracers #4)

I am loving the speed at which I am able to get through the books in the Tracers series. I have been rotating through fiction and nonfiction books and it takes me much longer to read a nonfiction book, especially when I’m only half interested in the nonfiction book.

This installment of the series dives into the lives of Sophie Barrett, secretary at the Delphi Center, and Jonah Macon, a homicide detective for the SMPD. The book begins with what appears to be a random school shooting at the local university. As the plot unwinds the reader comes to learn just how meticulously planned out this attack was. Sophie, of course, had been walking through campus at the time of the shooting and was witness to much of the attack, making her SMPD’s key witness. She was the one to point out that the shooter had an accomplice, that the shooter’s car was planted in a certain spot, she even was the one making the 911 call and notifying the take down team of where the shooting was coming from! Sophie was at the center of it all.

Sophie makes the “mistake” of going on the news with her accomplice theory when the police don’t believe her. This sets up the scene for the rest of the book hiding from the mysterious Sharpe. There are a handfull of attempts to kill Sophie and each one draws Sophie and Jonah closer together.

It was another enjoyable book from Laura Griffin, and I’ve put in a hold at my local library for the next book in the series. Although I enjoyed it, there were a few parts that bother me a bit. I realize this book was written several years ago, but it makes me a bit uncomfortable to be using even fake school shootings as the background plot for a romance novel. I mean, I get it, the trauma brings the two main characters together, but I’m not really a fan of using a school shooting for subplot substance. For the most part I liked how Griffin portrayed Sophie. She is an independent woman who takes care of herself. That being said, most of her character development in this book seemed like a waste. Maybe that’s because the timeline of the book is so short, but I think it does the character a unjustice. She’s working really hard to get a promotion at the Delphi Center, and midway through the book we hear a rumor that she’s on the shortlist for the promotion, but we don’t find out any further what happens there. The reader gets a sense that Sophie and her parents and siblings are quite different in how they live life. At one point it seems we will finally meet a part of that famiy and get some closure there, but no, that meeting is brought to an end before it even ever really begins. Maybe we will continue to see Sophie throughout the series and some of these questions will be answered, but if this turns out like the pattern the rest of the books follow, we likely won’t see her character built upon much.

Happy Reading 🙂

Unforgivable (Tracers 3)

The third installment of the Tracers series was a fun read. The previous novels vaguely introduced us to Unforgivable’s main character, Mia Voss, the DNA tracer at the Delphi Center. I was excited to get to the story where Mia is the main character since she had made brief appearances in a few of the previous books.

One thing I love about this series is how Griffin portrays her female characters. They demonstrate that it is ok to be intelligent, nerdy, and tough. Each character has their vulnerabilities, but triumphs over whatever initially holds them back. Mia Voss is as smart as they come being at the top of her field in DNA.

Mia is the target of a carjacking during which an innocent man is killed. She is deeply hurt by this and doesn’t want much outside help as she doesn’t want anyone else to get hurt. Detective Ric Santos has other plans though, as he and Mia bonded before this incident he wants to protect her from the perpetrator.

I enjoyed this book for the depth of the story. Just when you think it can’t possibly get worse–it does. It was multi-level between the police involved, the detectives, and finally the FBI being drawn in. It wasn’t one of the more simple cases, that’s for sure.

Happy Reading!

Unstoppable (Tracers 2.5)

I am thoroughly enjoying the Tracers series from Laura Griffin! Each installment has been interesting and captured my attention in different ways as it focuses on different characters each time.

Unstoppable is a short novella focusing on forensic anthropologist Kelsey Quinn who works with bones and decomposing bodies at the Delphi Center. She is also a teacher of a graduate class and the book focuses on her time at a dig. Since there have been a scurry of crimes in the area her Navy SEAL father sends Navy SEAL Gage Brewer to play bodyguard for the remainder of the dig. Chaos ensues and Kelsey and Gage have to come together to solve the crime going on in the area.

I went into this novella being skeptical about it because I couldn’t understand why Griffin would publish it as a novella, instead of a full-length book. These main characters come back for book #6 of the series so after finishing Unstoppable it makes a bit more sense with the timeline of the series. By the time I got close to the end of the novella I didn’t want the book to end! I’m trying to quickly read the in-between books to get back to Kelsey and Gage’s story-line.

Happy Reading!

Untraceable

As a Technical Services Librarian, pretty much every book that my library orders comes across my desk at some point. Fortunately, and unfortunately, that means I have a huge TBR list so a lot of my posts aren’t about the most recently released books. Nevertheless, they are still enjoyable reads. A few weeks ago, the most recent book in Laura Griffin’s Tracers series came across my desk. The plot sounded great to me, since I love detective/forensic murder mystery series. I didn’t want to start with the most recent book though, so I looked for the first book in the series and ILL’d the book–“Untraceable.”

Griffin introduces readers to a crime in the middle of it, instead of after the fact. I really liked that she did not bring us in to the plot by immediately introducing us to PI/computer genius Alexandra Lovell and Detective Nathan Devereaux. Lovell also takes on clients who are women who have suffered abuse and are looking to disappear. Alex helped victim Melanie Bess disappear and now she is really missing and Alex has a gut feeling that something isn’t right.

I really hate giving spoilers–yes, even for a book published in 2009, so I don’t want to give away too much plot. But the rest of the book focuses on searching for Melanie and what crimes are connected to her abusive husband, who is a cop. There are many twists and turns throughout the story line including some that I didn’t see coming.

The other subplot going on is the budding relationship between Alex and Nathan. There is a sexual tension between them throughout the novel, and includes some back story as to when they met previously. As I was reading I had to double check that this was the first book in the series because their meeting was brought up so often. I’m intrigued to find out how their relationship further develops and was surprised to see how much happened in just the first book of the series. Normally, authors will let the tension build up a few books and slowly jump in, but this book jumps right in.

This book was a fun, quick read, and I am very much looking forward to reading the next book in the series. I can’t wait for the book to get shipped to me so I can get started!