This audio book was sent to Traveling With T for review consideration.

Best Laid Plans

Lucy Kincaid is settling into life in San Antonio, Texas- when she gets a call to come to a crime scene.

The victim is Harper Worthington, husband to Congresswoman Adeline Reyes-Worthington, and the potential fall-out from this investigation is messy.

Harper is found in a seedy motel off the beaten path in San Antonio and it looks like he came in for some fun and then the fun killed him.

Of course, looks can be deceiving as Lucy Kincaid finds out. 

With secrets and victims looking like bad people and bad people looking like victims- it’s up to Lucy Kincaid and her new by the book partner, Barry, to unravel the lies, half-lies, partial truths and secrets that surround this case. Sean Rogan, Lucy’s boyfriend is in the mix of things- and working together- the 2 begin to piece together a picture of political corruption, unscrupulous FBI agents, and a man who will go to all kinds of lengths to make sure that Lucy Kincaid’s life is unbearable.

 

Traveling With T’s Thoughts:

This is my first Allison Brennan book- I listened to it on audio (read by Ann Marie Lee).

So, thoughts: This is the 9th book in the Lucy Kincaid series and sometimes I hate starting a series in the middle- usually too much backstory to appreciate the characters in the current book. However, this book sounded good, so I took a chance.

I was not disappointed.  It would have been nice to have read book 8, since book 9 was dealing with a good bit of fall-out from previous book- but it’s not required. There is enough details mentioned in book 9 to give you the info you need.

In BEST LAID PLANS, Lucy has to confront the fact that just because people look like a victim to her well-trained eye- does not mean they are not behind the scenes pulling strings and leaving crumbs of clues to lead her in the direction they want her to go. It’s a lesson that she learns- but it’s a hard lesson because Lucy is compassionate and such an advocate for the victim.

What I liked:

Lucy- she was a spitfire character. Passionate. Determined. Multi-layered.

Sean Rogan- the man would go to the ends of the Earth for Lucy. His gray area rules when he’s finding the truth also appeals.

The Cover. Love the cover.

The narrator- sometimes, she got on my nerves just a bit- occasionally Lucy was a bit too breathy- not like scared, more like a sexpot character for my taste- but I liked how she really did a good job of differentiating the male character voices (for the most part). Because, since this is a police procedural- there are MANY male characters.

How deep and twisted the mystery was. Sure, we knew bits and pieces from various players in the story all the time. But, Allison Brennan started twisting them around and involving pieces of the story with other pieces that you didn’t see fitting together at first. And, she’s not finished yet- book 10 looks to be super-twisty, as well.

 

What I didn’t care for:

SO many characters. SO many. It was hard to keep up with everyone- especially since majority of them had a Special Agent this or that in their name. This is when I was especially thankful for Ann’s differentiation of voices in the male characters.

I’m torn on the cliff-hanger aspect of this book. I like it, in one way, because it hints at the next book- and yet, I wish we had found out the mole in the FBI in this book.

 

My final thoughts:

BEST LAID PLANS was a good introduction to me for the Lucy Kincaid series. Filled with action, secrets, lies and betrayals- this is a story that will keep you guessing.

 

 

*The audio of BEST LAID PLANS was sent to Traveling With T for review consideration. All thoughts and opinions are mine alone.*

 

Happy Reading and Bookishly Yours,

T @ Traveling With T