Monday, February 2, 2015

The Body Market / D.V. Berkom


Reviewed by: BigAl

Genre: Thriller

Approximate word count: 70-75,000 words

Availability    
Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: YES  Smashwords: YES  Paper: YES
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Author:

 “Raised in the Midwest,” DV Berkom “received her BA in political science from the University of Minnesota and promptly moved to Mexico to live on a sailboat. Many, many cross-country moves (and several years) later, she now lives just outside of Seattle, Washington with the love of her life, Mark, an ex-chef-turned contractor, and writes every chance she gets.” She is the author of two thriller series.

For more, visit her website.

Description:

“Former assassin Leine Basso is hired by a wealthy Beverly Hills power couple to find their missing daughter, Elise, last seen partying with her boyfriend at a club in Tijuana. At first, police believe the two teenagers are the victims of a carjacking. But when Leine finds their missing vehicle with the boyfriend’s mutilated body inside, and the local cartel warns her away, she knows if Elise isn’t already dead, she will be soon, or worse.

In the lethal world of organized crime, there’s always a worse.

As Leine races to uncover the reason behind Elise Bennett’s disappearance, she must also battle the powerful interests fighting to keep her from the truth.”

Appraisal:

As I was pondering what to say about The Body Market beyond the obvious (fast paced, blah, blah, blah) I was comparing and contrasting Leine Basso, the protagonist in this series, with Kate Jones, the protagonist in DV Berkom’s other series. (This is the third in this series while Kate Jones has seven volumes thus far.) Both can rightfully be described as kick-butt females, able and willing to mix it up with the bad guys as much as any man while still clearly being a member of the fairer sex. Each has a past that creates issues for them. However, these issues are much different. Kate Jones is the former lover of the leader of a Mexican drug cartel. Her ex and those associated with him keep popping up, causing problems. Leine’s situation as a retired assassin is much different, with her issues being largely internal, primarily guilt associated with her past, not only the things she did, but how it affected those around her.

However, in this book Leine’s past seemed to be haunting her slightly less than in the first two books. Maybe she’s working past that and, since what she is doing now is definitely fighting evil, she’s feeling better about herself.

The plot of The Body Market is easy to see as plausible with two older teens stretching their wings beyond what is prudent and having it backfire in a big way. When Leine tries to discover what happened, it makes for a fast-paced story (yeah, I know), that the more it developed, the more I wondered how it could ever come to a happy resolution.

FYI:

Some adult language.

Although the third book in the series, this book can be read as a standalone.

Format/Typo Issues:

My review is based on an advance reader copy. I’m unable to judge the final product in this area.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

1 comment:

DVBerkom said...

Thanks, Al! What a great review :-)