Ali Reynolds Series, Book 15, by J.A. Jance, Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster, June 2020
* An e-galley was provided for an honest review by Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster through Edelweiss.
Credible Threat by J.A. Jance
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
CREDIBLE THREAT by J.A. Jance is the 15th book in the Ali Reynolds Series. The mystery is well written, with fast pacing, strong backstories, and compelling characters. It's told in third person, past tense, and in several points of view.
Rachel Higgins learns her son's drug addition and subsequent death years before from an overdose may be the direct result of being sexually preyed upon by a trusted priest while in high school. She and her husband have basically become strangers in their own home. She has no friends, no home life, and nothing to do but wallow in her pain. Through her grief, she transfers her need for revenge to the highest Catholic Church priest in her community, Archbishop Francis Gillespie.
Archbishop Gillespie, the 86-year-old head of the Phoenix Archdiocese, has made it a mission to get rid of pedophile priests in his archdiocese. He's trying to come to terms with his mortality, especially after recovering from a two-month illness. He gets tired too easily, is dismayed to use a walker to get around and is slowly getting back into his everyday responsibilities, when he starts receiving threats left in the collection boxes at various local Catholic churches. After a few weeks, he starts to take them seriously and contacts security experts Ali Reynolds and her husband B. Simpson for help.
Ali Reynolds is also struggling with grief. She's found it hard to come out of a deep depression from a friend's death months earlier. She snaps at everyone and has to take on finding Gillespie's possible murderer by herself, since B. is out of the country on another case. The police don't take the threats seriously, so it's up to Ali to follow the tiniest of clues to identify the potential murderer by herself.
The story contains some great scenes full of action and includes lots of interesting mystery-related tidbits. Rachel is really cunning in how she plans the murder so to not get caught. But like all criminals who think they've committed the perfect crime, Rachel makes a couple of little mistakes that result in her identification and eventual downfall.
I was ready to give this book five stars until I got near the end. The ever increasing buildup of tension didn't match the placid ending. It's like rushing to get all your exams and papers finished before the end of a school year, then – POOF! It's over. So I deducted one star to make my rating a full four stars.
All in all, CREDIBLE THREAT is a well-written, fast-paced story, with strong characters and good story arcs, and I recommend to all mystery lovers. This is the first book I've read by this author, and I'm sorry I waited so long to get into this series. Now I intend to go back and start at the beginning.
If You Like This, You Might Like: Books 1-14 of the ALI REYNOLDS SERIES and J.P. BEAUMONT NOVELS by J.A. Jance, EVE DUNCANS SERIES by Iris Johansen, LUCY KINCAID NOVELS by Allison Brennan, FBI THRILLER SERIES and A BRIT IN THE FBI SERIES by Catherine Coulter, V.I. WARSHAWSKI BOOKS by Sara Paretsky, TRACER SERIES, BORDERLINE MYSTERIES, and GLASS SISTERS SERIES by Laura Griffin
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