Published by : Orenda Books
15 January 2017
Copy : Paperback - Received from publisher
The Blurb
Lori Anderson is as tough as they come, managing to keep her career as a fearless Florida bounty hunter separate from her role as single mother to nine-year-old Dakota, who suffers from leukaemia. But when the hospital bills start to rack up, she has no choice but to take her daughter along on a job that will make her a fast buck. And that’s when things start to go wrong. The fugitive she’s assigned to haul back to court is none other than JT, Lori’s former mentor – the man who taught her everything she knows … the man who also knows the secrets of her murky past.
Not only is JT fighting a child exploitation racket operating out of one of Florida’s biggest theme parks, Winter Wonderland, a place where ‘bad things never happen’, but he’s also mixed up with the powerful Miami Mob. With two fearsome foes on their tails, just three days to get JT back to Florida, and her daughter to protect, Lori has her work cut out for her. When they’re ambushed at a gas station, the stakes go from high to stratospheric, and things become personal.
Not only is JT fighting a child exploitation racket operating out of one of Florida’s biggest theme parks, Winter Wonderland, a place where ‘bad things never happen’, but he’s also mixed up with the powerful Miami Mob. With two fearsome foes on their tails, just three days to get JT back to Florida, and her daughter to protect, Lori has her work cut out for her. When they’re ambushed at a gas station, the stakes go from high to stratospheric, and things become personal.
The Very Pink Notebook Review
At first glance this book may seem like it is just going to be an action packed, chase thriller but once you start reading you quickly realise it is going to go so much deeper than that. It is a book that has so many levels it is difficult to know where to begin the review.
So, I will start with the glaringly obvious, the action. Quite simple it is written so perfectly, the instant I started reading I had a movie playing out in my head. I am not always one for reading 'action' but this novel had me engaged from the very first line and kept me so for several reasons.
The first reason : the protagonist. I think Lori Anderson has become one of my most favourite protagonists. She is stunningly brilliant. Tough with a capital 'T' - a female bounty hunter and a single mother - she has to be. Even changing her name to leave behind the women she once was, to be the women she has become. Of course, you can never fully leave behind who you are and Steph Broadribb has woven her history and her fragile side in so carefully and seamlessly you are left with a beautifully developed, complex and truly likable character who you can't help but fall in love with and deeply root for.
Broadribb has continued her brilliance in character development with the rest of the cast, particularly those who mean something to Lori, her daughter Dakota and her old mentor / ex lover JT. The author presents the relationships between the three with such realism and sensitivity you find yourself wanting to know more about the 'normal' mother / daughter life Lori is desperately trying to make for them and likewise you yearn to be given as much information as possible about the, very deep and complicated, history between Lori and JT.
Along with all the action and the softer relationship side of the story you then get the mystery. Our protagonist goes to do a simple 'pick up' job and winds up in a web of horror. Just as it seems she makes a huge discovery and you think she might have untangled herself from the spiders web, you realise she has actually only taken herself further in.
Although the book is over three hundred pages long it is only the tip of the iceberg of this women's story and I can not wait for Deep Blue Trouble, book number two in the Lori Anderson series, to be realised so I can absorbed myself back into the troubled, but exciting world of Ms Anderson.
Deep Down Dead by Steph Broadribb gets a definite :
About the Author
Steph Broadribb was born in Birmingham and grew up in Buckinghamshire. Most of her working life has been spent between the UK and USA. As her alter ego - Crime Thriller Girl - she indulges her love of all things crime fiction by blogging at www.crimethrillergirl.com, where she interviews authors and reviews the latest releases.
Steph is an alumni of the MA in Creative Writing (Crime Fiction) at City University London, and she trained as a bounty hunter in California. She lives in Buckinghamshire surrounded by horses, cow and chickens. Deep Down Dead is her debut novel.
Twitter : @CrimeThrillGirl
Facebook : /CrimeThrillerGirl
Website : www.crimethrillergirl.com
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