Review: Gone Too Far (Devlin & Falco #2) by Debra Webb

 

Print Length: 382 pages

Publisher: Thomas & Mercer (April 27, 2020)

From Goodreads.com: As veteran detectives of the Birmingham Police Department, Kerri Devlin and Luke Falco have seen it all. So when the city’s new hotshot deputy district attorney turns up dead as part of a double homicide, the partners immediately get to work.

But this is no ordinary case. Devlin and Falco quickly link the murdered DDA to one of their own: former BPD detective Sadie Cross. But Sadie’s fractured memory is yet another puzzle to decipher, as she only recalls bits and pieces of her violent past…a past that may hold clues to the motive behind the murders.

As the group slowly begins to unearth the truth, they soon discover that the more secrets are revealed, the more fatal the consequences.

                                                         *******************

My Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5

This was a solid, fast-paced read that on the whole kept me guessing (and up late reading). I enjoyed getting more of Sadie's tragic backstory, I felt like it helped us to understand her better in some ways and added a depth to her that she was lacking in book number one. It was also nice to see  Tori (Kerri's teenage daughter for those new to the series) come across as a more mature version of herself (although still with a lot of teenage angst and the troubles that come with being a teenage girl). I was glad to see she was able to give her mother a bit more leeway this go-round and not be such a brat. 

I wish I could say I felt the same about Kerri and Luke. While we are told that they work together easier now (trusting each other more after the events in book one), and we see that they are much friendlier (he eats dinner with her and Tori frequently), I don't feel as though we got to see anything new from them. We didn't learn anything we didn't already know, it was instead of moving forward the way Sadie did, these two simply continued to exist in their small town police force. 

And what a small town it was. I found I had the same issue with this novel as I did with the first in that everything was just a little too convenient. I mean what are the chances that a missing link to Sadie's past would just so happen to show up in the same small town years later AND be connected to an ongoing case? 

Thankfully, what saved this one (for me at least) was the amount of times the author managed to surprise me. Just when I thought I had figured out the who, the what and the why, a new piece of information was revealed that had me sitting there going ohhhh well I didn't see THAT coming. There was just enough of that scattered throughout the book (although more towards the end), that it kept me glued to the pages to find out what would happen next. 

Those things considered, I would definitely read more from this author, and look forward to continuing this series. 

DISCLAIMER:  I received a complimentary copy of this novel from the publisher. This has not affected my review in any way. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are 100% my own.

                                                              *******************

                               
                                                                   Gone Too Far is available from Amazon.com

                                                                        (for free if you subscribe to Kindle Unlimited)