Dru’s Short Musing:
Like fine wine, this series gets better with each book written. In the latest exploits, Annalisa’s brother has a request…prove a fellow inmate is innocent of his crime. To do this, Annalisa must let Nick, who arrested the inmate, know that perhaps it wasn’t an easy victory.
I applaud Joanna for creating a well-written and dynamic multi-plot drama that kept me immersed in every detail from beginning to end, quickly becoming a page-turner. The mystery was staged with a bevy of characters who are somehow involved in the inmate being convicted and it’s up to Annalisa and Nick to figure out what they were hiding, now that they uncovered the truth. In the meantime, someone is killing men, and one must wonder if there is a connection. There was so much going on and the twists and turns in this solidly wicked plot kept me engrossed in what was happening on the page. The more the story progressed, the more we learned of the pivotal roles these characters played and the motives for this action. The pacing was on par with how well this story was being told and once again, I congratulate the author for a job well done in this riveting and grippingly terrific read.
Series Name: A Detective Annalisa Vega Mystery | Book 5
Genre: Police Procedural
Release: August 12, 2025
Format: Print, Digital, Audio
Purchase Link
Book Synopsis:
Detective Annalisa Vega hasn’t forgiven her brother for his role in a murder, and he hasn’t forgiven her for turning him in, so she’s surprised when he asks her to visit him in prison. Turns out, he has a possible case for her: one of his fellow inmates, Joe Green, may be innocent of the murder that landed him behind bars.
Joe is doing hard time for killing his ex-wife’s lawyer, but an anonymous letter sent to the prison warns that the eyewitness in Joe’s trial made up her story. With her private investigation business foundering, Annalisa is desperate enough to start poking around into Joe’s meager case. She immediately finds two problems: One, the eyewitness definitely lied about what she saw the night of the murder, and two, Annalisa’s husband Nick was the cop who arrested Joe in the first place.
Faced with correcting Nick’s mistakes, Annalisa digs deeper into Joe’s past and discovers he has two ex-wives with nothing good to say about him. The women may have orchestrated an elaborate frame to put Joe in prison, but one wife has completely disappeared since then. Did Joe somehow kill her? Or is he the real victim? Annalisa’s search for the truth tests the bounds of her marriage, her family, and her own sense of justice. Meanwhile, a devious killer keeps sending men to a watery death in the vastness of Lake Michigan. If Annalisa doesn’t figure out the truth about Joe soon, her husband might be next.
FTC Full Disclosure – I received a digital ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.