3.74 AVERAGE

cabook's review

2.0

Free ARC — had to skim a lot. I literally kept falling asleep while reading this.

Bethany, the wife of a mega church preacher, is almost swept away in a flood. A long haired man who is also in the flood helps save her just before he’s swept away. Bethany’s friends, Kendall and Michael, drowned in the flood. Bethany goes to Annie, her best friend’s cousin. Annie is a PI with her grandfather in their small Texas town. While looking at the scene where Bethany cling to the tree, she finds a woman dead in a partially submerged truck. But this woman was shot, not drowned. Lots of investigating to find out
SPOILER: Bethany’s husband killed the woman in the truck. She was a drug dealer and had seen Bethany’s preacher husband with Kendall while on a mission trip in Mexico. The guy who saved Bethany had worked with her running drugs and saw it happen. He had to run away so preacher man wouldn’t kill him, too. There were lots of other characters who were involved in the drug deals and in the mega church, which kind of muddied up the plot.

I like the small town Texas Hill Country setting. If it wasn’t for that I’d give it a one star.
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rachelibrarian's review

2.5

I felt like she was making fun of religion and being a Christian and I was offended by that. Not all Christians are bad. 
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sbunyan's review

1.0

Didn’t finish. I tried several times but finally decided I just didn’t care am about the plot or the characters.

sueemmy's review

4.0

Second in the Annie McIntyre series. I've read and enjoyed both and found Annie to be an utterly original character. She's young, slight and not at your stereotypical private eye. The sense of place makes Texas one of the more prominent characters in the book. As the book opens, a hard rain after a drought turns into a destructive flood with a number of lives lost. Bethany, a high school friend of Annie's, hires her to find the man who saved her life in the flood. Well done mystery that keeps you guessing. Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Second in the Annie McIntyre series. I've read and enjoyed both and found Annie to be an utterly original character. She's young, slight and not at your stereotypical private eye. The sense of place makes Texas one of the more prominent characters in the book. As the book opens, a hard rain after a drought turns into a destructive flood with a number of lives lost. Bethany, a high school friend of Annie's, hires her to find the man who saved her life in the flood. Well done mystery that keeps you guessing.

paul314's review

4.0

3.5 stars, rounded up despite the fact that the author needs an editor to trim about 40 pages from this book..way too much telling instead of showing. Still, I like the locale and the character..
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speedreadstagram's review

3.0

A small town in Texas is dealing with massive flooding. Bethany is pulled from the floodwaters that has decimated the town. Annie is a PI and is working as an apprentice private investigator who’s handed her first solo case – uncovering the identify of the man who rescued Bethany before he was swept downstream and never heard from again. During her investigation Annie comes across a different victim – he was shot, not drowned. Annie starts to question who she is searching for. As Annie digs deeper, she uncovers, drug dealers, preachers, and wayward drifters trying to make sense of life after the storm. Will Annie be able to solve the secrets? Or are some secrets better left buried?

The people who Annie encountered in her small town really through me for a moral loop. So many of them were ethically and morally questionable and the good guys were hard to come by. There were just so many characters going on in the book that at times it was hard to keep track. I think this would have really from having few characters who were more well developed. The descriptions of the town, and the flooding were spot on, and I felt right there in my mind. Overall, this was a solid book and interesting.

Thank you to @netgalley and the publisher, St Martin’s Press, @stmartinspress, for my advanced copy in exchange for this honest review.

Love this series. Move over Kinsey Mahone and VI Warshawsky, Annie McIntyre is on the case.

mjwestbrook's review

5.0
adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced
mysterious fast-paced