Dead Stop (Sydney Rose Parnell Series Book 2) –by Barbara Nickless

Fiction / Thriller

400 pages / 2575 KB

5 Stars

Bad news first: Book 3 isn't out, yet.

Although I think one can read this as a stand-alone book, by starting with Blood on the Tracks, the first in the series, one will get a much better, and deeper understanding of who Sydney Rose Parnell and Clyde are.

If you want a well-researched and excellently crafted book, this is the one for you. I found myself laughing in a couple of places, and crying in a couple of places, and there was one sequence where I had to read with my eyes closed! Do you have any idea how difficult that is?

Sydney, our heroine, is damaged. She is an "ex" Marine, with her tours in the Mortuary Services in Iraq. Yeah, you'd be damaged, too. Clyde, her faithful K9 companion, is also an "ex" Marine and Iraq war veteran. He's not quite as damaged as she is.

I'm not sure if this book is a little darker than Blood on the Tracks, or if it's because I forced myself to read it more slowly, instead of inhaling it in one sitting, therefore getting more of the story. It is very intense, gritty. And oh-so-hard to put down.

Sydney is still collecting and living with her ghosts, is in therapy at the VA, and finds herself embroiled in another murder on her tracks, and a race against time to find the murderer and save a missing child. There is murder and mayhem, though it's germane to the story, not gratuitous. In fact, much is left to your own imagination.

We get more of Sydney's thoughts from her journal entries, many of which appear as epigraphs to each chapter. She is dealing with her PTSD, but it costs her.

Personally, I love having a heroine that I can actually believe in. She isn't perfect. She isn't the Ice Woman. She's a veteran with issues she must learn to live with, and she is learning. If you, or someone you know, have PTSD, this might be a helpful book. Yes, it may bring up flashbacks, but you may learn a bit from how Sydney handles hers. And, if you are a vet, thank you for your service.

The ending of this book leaves it wide open for Book 3. Which will not be available soon enough to suit me. I think it highly unfair that even though I took my time reading this book, it still takes her longer to write one than for me to read it.