NetGalley Top Reviewer

NetGalley Top Reviewer
NetGalley Top Reviewer

Thursday, February 8, 2018

The Fear Within by JS Law (LT Danielle Lewis #2)

"Good people do bad things, and bad people do good things...the world doesn't work in absolutes."

Gripping thriller set mainly near and on a Royal Naval base in Portsmouth. Lieutenant Danielle Lewis and partner, Master at Arms, John Granger, work for the Special Investigation Branch. In this second book the pair face a series of disasppearances and crimes that tie back to the TENACITY (a submarine) and their previous case. A very complicated plot with lots of characters, this moves along quite quickly with information and action.

After rescuing an abused wife in an abandoned shop, the duo is called to the ship, DEFIANCE, because a young female stores assistant had gone missing. Meanwhile, Dan (oh how I HATED everytime I saw that masculine name used for Danielle in the entire book -- but this was an ARC and I am hoping that someone talked some sense into the powers that be and got that changed) is also talking to a serial killer because body parts thought to belong to his victims have come to the attention of her bosses, AND she is also still secretly working on the former case involving a drug smuggling operation on the submarine. Busy lady!

There was a lot going on in this book and quite confusing to me because I was not familiar with the characters and had not read the first book in the series. In this case, I think that was a huge mistake and would urge anyone considering this title to go back and read #1 first. As far as the character of Danielle Lewis (and just again metnioning that she was called Dan throughout), I'm not sure I can say that she was believable or likeable. Let's say that some of the scenes stretched credulity and leave it at that. The reader really doesn't learn much about her personally and so she was not very three-dimensional nor were any of the other characters in the book. I did find the military connection to be quite interesting as I haven't read many books where the investigators are part of the Royal Navy.

So, despite my annoyances as described above, I did enjoy it and will probably go back and read the first book at some point. Would definitely want to read #3 because this one ends on a cliffhanger!

Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt and Company for the e-book ARC to read and review.

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