My Review: 3.5 ā
From a Kyle Chandler look-a-like to a bald headed vigilante dad.
Chapter 1 had me hooked! Jason, Lucinda, Allison and Ethan are carjacked on their way home one night resulting in a parents worst nightmare. The FBI shows up and the family is whisked away to a safe house in the witness protection program, leaving everything and everyone behind. Jason seemed very cool as a cucumber most of the time throughout part one. I got something smells fishy vibes right away and it’s not because they were living near the marsh.
Then, onto pulse pounding part two!…or so I thought. It really started out good, with much more page turning action and I couldn’t wait to see what would happen next, but then some things started to seem far-fetched and predictable to me. Although it was fast paced, it seemed to drag on quite a bit.
There were some twists I saw coming a mile away, and some that were a surprise, which kept me reading on. I did enjoy the friendships that Jason made along the way.
Something that really stuck out as odd for me was that Jason called his son “Honey”. To me that’s more of a term for a female. And I always find it interesting when authors write in the point of view of their opposite sex, it just seems more likely that women author’s first person character would be a woman.
Overall, I would recommend to my suspenseful, secret and action packed-ish loving friends.
**Many thanks to NetGalley, Penguin Group Putnam and the author for providing me with an advanced reader copy for my honest review**
Book Blurb: Release date ~ March 29, 2022
How far would you go to save your family? In this heart-stopping novel by #1 bestselling author Lisa Scottoline, a suburban father must answer that question when a botched carjacking places his family in the crosshairs of ruthless criminals.
Jason Bennett is a family man and an elite court reporter–so good at his work that he was once selected to cover legal proceedings at Guantanamo Bay. One of his skills is the ability to read lips, which his fourteen-year-old son calls his “superpower.” But his life takes a horrific turn when he is driving his family home from his teenaged daughter’s lacrosse game, and he notices a pickup truck tailgating and cutting off their new Mercedes. Two men jump from the pickup, brandishing weapons, and demand that Jason turn over the Mercedes. He complies, getting his family and their dog out of the car. But when the dog leaps at the carjackers, one of their guns goes off. Jason hears a scream behind him, and his daughter falls to the street. Then there’s another gunshot, as one carjacker shoots the other point-blank, killing him. The killer runs back to the pickup truck and drives away, leaving Jason to watch his daughter die.
In his blinding grief, Jason receives a visit from the FBI. The agents inform him that the two carjackers work for a dangerous criminal organization distributing opiates in southeastern Pennsylvania and northern Delaware. The family must enter the witness protection program, or WITSEC. Hiding away, the family crumbles–and Jason begins to lose faith that the government is taking care of them at all. Jason sneaks out one night and discovers a startling fact that throws into doubt everything the government has been telling him. He takes matters into his own hands to save his family and bring his daughter’s killer to justice, risking his life in the process. By the shocking end of the novel, Jason discovers a new definition of himself, shedding not only the identity the government has given him, but the one he was born with.
Great content! Keep up the good work!