Just Cause by Carolyn Arnold – a Review

Just Cause
Madison Knight series – Book #5
by Carolyn Arnold
Release Date: October 16, 2014

Amazon / Amazon UK / Barnes & Noble / Kobo

Description:
The past threatens the future and puts Detective Madison Knight’s life in danger.

A cold case pits Madison against the Russian Mafia, but things take a swift turn when the unthinkable happens—a new threat arises and has Madison hunting down an unknown killer.

While trying to make sense of the clues, bodies are piling up, and the brass is hungry for explanations. In addition, Madison must balance all of this while nursing an injury, talking out her emotions with a therapist—a bureaucratic necessity—answering to an eager journalist, and facing an internal affairs investigation.

As the answers come together, Madison narrows in on a possible link between the Russian Mafia and someone within the Stiles PD.

Will she have the courage to confront the person she believes is playing both sides, even though they hold a position of great power?

Things are about to be shaken up, and, for Madison, that means she just might have to let go of the past to embrace her future.

Review:

Just Cause by Carolyn Arnold is the 5^th book in her exciting Madison Knight series. In case you are not familiar with this series, here is a brief synopsis: Madison Knight is a tough, say it like it is detective in the major crimes division. Madison fights and solves crimes, despite the minimal support she gets from her co-workers.   In Just Cause, Madison secretly works on a cold case of the Russian Mob that has haunted her since the beginning of this series. She is breaking the rules, because she knows her superiors will forbid her to be working on the case, which has become very personal to Madison.

Just Cause starts off with a bang, and Madison is literally moments away from her own death. The mob has taken her hostage at the start of the book, and they play their own torture game, Russian Roulette, with her. Since she never told anyone where she was going, she fears the end is near. Terry, her partner is at his desk, wondering where Madison is, as she is never ever late. Fortunately, Terry gets others involved and just when the next bullet is to be triggered, he comes to Madison’s rescue. Exciting? You bet. And this was just the first few pages of the book.

What follows is an exciting story of Madison trying to investigate and get the goods on the Russian mob, before all the possible witnesses to help her are eliminated one by one. This is an action packed story, and with each twist or death, I would be giving away spoilers, which I do not want to do. This is a page burner that you cannot put down, which you need to read.

In previous reviews of this series, I have mentioned that this series has some similarities to the In-Death series, with the exception of the secondary characters and the fabulous team In-Death has.   Madison Knight stands alone for most of the time, which I have mentioned before, and is somewhat of a stickler for me. She does have a good friend, who is even better in this book. Terry her partner is a little better, but still somewhat annoying to me, but some is Madison’s own fault. I love Hershey, her dog, and at times it seems Hershey is the only happiness for her. Her immediate supervisor has made improvements in how he acts with her, and we do learn more about the chief, who is always nasty. Overall, there is hope for Madison to find some happiness with someone, and build a loyal team. She is a tough nut to crack.

With that being said, Just Cause was a great addition to this series. Carolyn Arnold outdoes herself with putting together the pieces of this mystery, and holding our attention all the way through. If you enjoy crime dramas, mysteries, thrillers, a tough hard-nosed cop and non-stop action storylines, look no further than the Madison Knight series.

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Author