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Welcome to my stop of the blog tour for the book “Welcome Back, Jack” by Liam Sweeny, hosted by Sage’s Blog Tours.
Let’s get on with the review, shall we? 🙂
Title: Welcome Back, Jack ( A Jack LeClere Thriller, Book 1)
Author: Liam Sweeny
Genre: Mystery, Thriller
Publishing date: 29th July , 2013
Published by: American Apocrypha
Pages: 302
My Rating: 4/5 stars
Summary:
When Jack was six years old, his parents were brutally slain by a serial killer. The police later found drifter Clyde Colsen driving a stolen car, his clothes soaked in blood. He was
tried, convicted and executed. Jack grew up knowing that they got the guy.
Now, Jack, a decorated homicide detective in New Rhodes, arrives at the third crime scene of the “South End Killer” murders and finds his name. He will soon find out something else:
Thirty years ago, they got the wrong guy. And now the right guy’s come back to pay Jack and New Rhodes his bloody respects. As Jack struggles to stay on the case, his cat-and-mouse with the killer makes him wonder if he’s the cat or the mouse. His family, and everyone in his life is fair game. As the killer escalates and threatens the entire city, Jack has a question he must answer in his desperation; can he stop the monster without becoming one?
My Take:
I like a good summary. I summary that actually summarizes the story of the book instead of being just a selling pitch, and this surely does it’s job. 🙂
Mystery is something that I have always enjoyed. This was a good one, a really good one. 😉
The opening crime scene is so disturbing, horifying, and disgusting that it makes you wonder what kind of a sick person can do that. You want to shake that man out of whatever trance he is in. Most serial killers can’t be shook out of the trance because it is who they are or rather who they have become. The people who kill without remorse are the most dangerous kind because there’s nothing to hold them back not even their own conscience.
Jack is dealing with exactly the kind of serial killer.
Jack and his best buddy, Gamble, who is also his partner, do most of the researches to catch the killer. Gamble is good with the laptop, he digs up all the information they can use. Jack has a supportive life while Gamble’s wife wants him to quit and work for some computer firm.
After they find out or rather guess how the killer might have killed without being seen. Jack investigates the crime scene and that is when he realizes that this person is who killed his parents 30 years ago.
The killer goes on length to make sure that Jack stays on the case when the police department, which is actually the FBI, local police, Special Agents and… (well, I am never good with remembering technicalities. 😛 You get my point though :P) working together, who don’t want him to stay because of the case being too personal to Jack. When Jack finally goes back to homicide, the killer drops his usual rituals and hits close to home. He shoots 2 people, one of which is jack’s close friend and this comes in as a case for the homicide and Jack is again dragged back.
The good side of the nightmare that Jack faced at the age of six was his family, friends, and job. The sweet couple who adopted him, his wife who was the daughter of the detective working on his parent’s case, his understanding son, his job, and the people associated with it. All this are in danger, as the killer wants to ruin Jack completely, to maybe finish the task he couldn’t 30 years ago.
This is a quite good cat-mouse chase. The ending is as thought through as the whole book. All in all it really is a good read. 🙂
Why would I pick it up?
A good mystery, a sick killer, and a supportive family for the main protagonist. Well, sounds like a plan. 😉
Author’s Bio:
Liam Sweeny has worn many hats in his life. In addition to being a writer for ten years, he has been an artist, musician, grassroots campaign staffer and spent four years in disaster response, both in leadership and in the field.
It was in the field in New Orleans that Sweeny got his start as a writer. Hurricane Katrina, and his role in the relief effort, fueled his early writing, where he began in sci-fi/fantasy before transitioning into crime, mystery and noir.
As a crime writer, Sweeny’s work has appeared in many publications, such as Thuglit, All Due Respect, Near to the Knuckle, Shotgun Honey and others. You can find out more at http://www.liamsweeny.com
Meet the author: | Website | Facebook | Goodreads | Twitter |
Get the book on: |Amazon
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