susanvoss18

Note: While this is Book 2 in the series, it works fine as a stand alone novel.

Doubleback is even better than Book 1 (Easy Innocence). The plot is tighter, the characters have more depth (for the most part), and the stakes are higher. Georgia Davis reluctantly teams up with her friend Ellie (an independent film maker) who is also reluctant to get involved in a kidnapping case. Still, these two ladies offer up their best advice to Chris, head of the IT department at a large bank, whose daughter has been kidnapped.

From the beginning, this kidnapping case isn’t typical – there’s no ransom demand for one thing. Still, the kid is eventually released safely back to her mom. But then some unexpected deaths have Georgia taking another look at it. What a deliciously tangled web of intrigue! The plot takes us to the desert southwest and even across the border into Mexico. Ellie continues to work her own case but as the two friends compare notes, they start to realize there’s connections between the kidnapping and the clean energy company Ellie is looking into.

This mystery was nearly perfect. I did have one laugh at the plot and that is the out of character sexytimes for Georgia. She’s been hunting a man who has answers and once found, not even a day passes before they tumble into bed together. Georgia has been so guarded, not looking for a relationship at all. Plus she wasn’t sure if this guy would ultimately kill her or perhaps turn her over to the bad guys, yet hey, there’s a storm and we’re stuck in this cabin with no TV. So, yeah, that was silly. The sex scene itself was OK, a little sexy, straight, to the point, brief. Personally, if you’re going to toss in a completely out of character sex scene, might as well make it epic.

Anyhoo, I can see Ellie and Georgia teaming up again. In fact, there’s some hints as to their past friendship and perhaps they did once upon a time tackle mysteries together. Georgia certainly has developed in this book, including renewing some old ties with the police department. I look forward to seeing what happens in the next book. 4.5/5 stars.

The Narration: Eva Kaminsky has a great voice for Georgia. She sounds experienced and tough when she needs to be. I did have a little trouble discerning the difference between her voices for Ellie and Georgia when they were in the same conversation. I did confuse a few things because I wasn’t sure who was talking when. For the most part, she had a decent Spanish accent, though she mispronounced Gila monster. While Georgia might well get it wrong, her Hispanic companion would not. The pacing was better than Book 1 but still a little slow for my tastes. There were no technical issues with the recording. 4/5 stars.

I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Libby Fischer Hellmann. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.