Tag Archives: Detective Kerri Blasco

Shoeless Child (Detective Kerri Blasco) by JA Schneider-a review

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SHOELESS CHILD (Detective Kerri Blasco #4) by J.A. Schneider-a review

 

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date January 24, 2018

A little boy has seen a horrific murder but is too traumatized to speak. Detective Kerri Blasco struggles to connect with him…

Charlie Sparkes peeks out to see his mother and another young woman brutally shot. Hysterical, the brave child bolts into the cold November night for help. He screams and cries, only to fall into more trauma.

Homicide Detective Kerri Blasco is called to the murder scene. One woman lies dead next to the blood soaked rug where Rachel Sparkes was seriously wounded. With little memory of the attack, she has been taken to the hospital – but where is her child? He too, Kerri discovers, now lies in a hospital bed, mute and traumatized in a fetal position, refusing even food and water.

Charlie must have seen what happened. Kerri’s heart aches for this piteous little boy and she struggles to help him; struggles, too to find the monster who did this horrible crime. “It’s your kind of case,” Sergeant Alex Brand, Kerri’s boss and partner tells her, stepping up police urgency when another innocent is shot, and then another.

Kerri Blasco finds herself more emotionally obsessed with this case than with any other, despite clear and onrushing danger to herself…

•••••••••

REVIEW: Shoeless Child begins with an unprovoked attack on two young women, leaving one dead and one in the hospital. The only witness is a little boy, Charlie, who was able to get away from the attacker and find help.

Detective Kerri Blasco, along with her partner, Alex, make the scene and it doesn’t take her long to surmise that the little boy must have seen the attacker. When they head to the hospital, they find the surviving victim, along with her very traumatized little boy. Kerri finds herself getting emotionally involved in helping little Charlie come out of his shell and vows to figure out exactly what happened. What follows is a suspenseful read that will keep you turning the pages until the final twist is revealed and leaves you floored……..

Shoeless Child is another nicely written story by J.A. Schneider. I love Kerri Blasco and her partner, Alex. Kerri’s character is very relatable. She has a bit of a horrific past herself, which humanizes her and makes her a three dimensional character. Alex, who is also her boyfriend, is the perfect partner for her. The secondary characters are well written and play off of each other beautifully. In typical Schneider style, there are lots of twists and turns, and just when you think you’ve got it figured out, you realize you don’t. I have to be honest though. I’m really funny about how children are handled in the stories I read. What happened to Charlie when he ran for help left my jaw on the floor. The last two paragraphs of the first chapter made me close my iPad and walk away. It wasn’t anything horribly graphic, but, in my humble opinion, was just too much and didn’t add anything to the story, other than more unnecessary trauma to a little boy. I thought about it for a day or two, picked my iPad back up and gave it another go. I’m glad I did. I really liked the story overall. I like Schneider’s style, and as I said before, I love Kerri’s character. If you’re a fan of suspense filled whodunits, you will never go wrong with one of Schneider’s tales. Well done, J.A. Schneider.

Reading Order and Previous Reviews
Fear Dreams
Her Last Breath
Watching You

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Vickie M

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Watching You (Detective Kerry Blasco #3) by J. A. Schneider-a review

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Watching You (Detective Kerri Blasco #3) by J.A. Schneider- a review

Watching You

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / Amazon. uk /

About the book: Release Date: April 25, 2017

A serial killer texts his victims first. A detective vows revenge. He comes after her.

In the chill of an October night, Detective Kerri Blasco is called to a bizarre murder scene. Leda Winfield, a young volunteer for the homeless, has been shot. Her cell phone displays the frightening text, WATCHING YOU, and into her back, hideously pushed with a hat pin, is a note with the same awful message. Leda’s socialite family and friends insist that no one would have wanted to harm her, but Detective Kerri isn’t convinced.

Until another random young woman is killed in exactly the same way. Kerri and her team profile a monstrous killer who enjoys terrifying his victims before stalking and killing them. But how does he get their phone numbers?

Kerri soon finds that the killer is after her, too, and that the key to finding him may just be in the homeless shelter. When the body count rises, she vows to stop the madman – even if it means battling her own personal trauma, risking her job, her love relationship with her boss Alex Brand, and her life.

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REVIEW: Watching You begins with the internal ramblings of a psychotic murder, and it doesn’t take long for him to hone in on his seemingly first target: Leda Winfield. When Kerri and Alex make the scene, Kerri is sickened by what greets them. As their investigation begins, they discover that Leda was a person whom everyone loved and had a heart as big as the sprawling city in which she lived. It also doesn’t take long for the killer to strike again. As things escalate, Kerri soon finds herself the target of the crazed killer. She knows that they are running out of time and as they search desperately for any and all clues, Kerri finds herself face to face with the killer……….and time is running out.

Watching You is another nice addition to the Detective Kerri Blasco series. In this installment, we get to find out a little more of her back story and see a little more of her relationship with Alex. Schneider ramped up the suspense factor in this one and I loved seeing how it all played out. The characters were well written and as the scenes played out, I felt that the world she is building with this series is coming into its own. I love Kerri’s heart and determination to not bend when she knows something isn’t right and stands her ground. Alex is a great partner for her, both personally and professionally. The characters who make up the suspect list were well written as well. So well written that when I “knew” who the killer was, I was proved very wrong! Once again, if you’re a fan of suspense, you can’t go wrong with this series. Well done, J.A. Schneider!

Reading Order and Previous Reviews
Fear Dreams
Her Last Breath
Watching You

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Vickie M

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Her Last Breath (Detective Kerri Blasco #2) by J.A. Schneider-a review

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Her Last Breath (Detective Kerri Blasco #2) by J. A. Schneider-a review

Her Last Breath

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / Amazon. uk /

About the book: Release Date October 21, 2016

A chilling psychological thriller about a woman caught between two men…

Mari Gill wakes to horror in a strange apartment next to a murdered man, and can’t remember the night before. Accused of murder, she feels torn between her husband, a successful defense attorney, and a mysterious, kind man who wants to help. Can she trust either of them – or even her friends? Detective Kerri Blasco battles her police bosses believing Mari is innocent…but is she?

Review:
As the blurb says, Mari Gill wakes up in a strange bed next to a murdered man who is a complete stranger. She sees a knife that has been plunged into his chest and screams bloody murder (literally) as she stumbles out of the bed and attempts to run for her life. She slips and falls into broken glass cutting her hands terribly and promptly has a life threatening asthma attack. Not knowing where her purse is, she has no hope of finding her inhaler as she starts to black out knowing she is about to die. Just then, a stranger appears just in time and calls the police. Once the police and paramedics arrive, Mari knows she’s going to need help from the one person she does not want to call…her estranged husband, who just happens to be a high profile defense attorney.

As the police try to ascertain what happened, something does not sit well with Detective Kerri Blasco and her partner, Detective Alex Brand. The murdered man ends up being an in demand photographer and their captain is being pressured to get the case wrapped up and the murderer charged. When Kerri tells her captain she’s not convinced that Mari is the murderer, he knows she won’t stop until she has things figured out in her own time. He still gives her a timeframe and tells her to get it figured out. Kerri soon discovers that things are not quite as they seem. After speaking with Mari, she’s even more sure that she’s missing something…but what?

Mari doesn’t know who to trust. Her estranged husband is a master at handling the press and high profile cases, but she doesn’t want to rely too much on him. Once she meets the mysterious man who saved her life, she feels a connection with him, only to end up questioning his reasons. She has friends who seem to be a little too curious about what happened and seem to be a step ahead of her as she tries to figure things out. Mari’s life soon becomes so upended that she doesn’t know who she can trust. What follows is a story that will leave you guessing until almost the very end.

Her Last Breath is a nice addition to the Detective Kerri Blasco series. Schneider does a masterful job of weaving her suspense filled story in this one. The characters are relatable and the premise is a good one. I’ve liked Kerri and Alex since I first read about them in the Embryo series and love seeing them move forward in their lives and their careers. I also liked Mari. However, the one sticking point for me was the way the author wrote Mari’s thoughts. There were so many broken thoughts and fragmented sentences that it was almost like reading a screenplay where she was concerned. The supporting characters weren’t as developed as Schneider normally writes them, but they were relatable nonetheless. With all of that said, Her Last Breath was a good read. If you’re a fan of the suspense genres, you won’t go wrong with J.A. Schneider. I look forward to the next installment.

Click HERE for Vickie’s review of book one-FEAR DREAMS

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Vickie M

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