Category Archives: Karen Ellis

February 20, 2019 · 11:58 pm

Review: Last Night by Karen Ellis

Title: Last Night by Karen Ellis
The Searchers Series Book Two
Publisher: Mulholland Books
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery, Suspense
Length: 320 pages
Book Rating: B+

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley

Summary:

NYPD detective Lex Cole tracks a missing Brooklyn teen whose bright future is endangered by the ghosts of his unknown father’s past, in this highly anticipated sequel to A Map of the Dark.

One of the few black kids on his Brighton Beach block, Titus “Crisp” Crespo was raised by his white mother and his Russian grandparents. He has two legacies from his absent father, Mo: his weird name and his brown skin. Crisp has always been the odd kid out, but a fundamentally good kid, with a bright future.

But one impulsive decision triggers a horrible domino effect–an arrest, no reason not to accompany his richer, whiter friend Glynnie on a visit to her weed dealer, and a trip onto his father’s old home turf where he’ll face certain choices he’s always strived to avoid.

As Detective Lex Cole tries to unravel the clues from Crisp’s night out, they both find that what you don’t know about your past can still come back to haunt you.

Review:

Last Night by Karen Ellis is a fast-paced and engrossing mystery.  Although this newest addition is the second installment in The Searchers series, it can be read as a standalone.

Titus “Crisp” Crespo is the valedictorian of his graduating class and he has been accepted into Princeton. However, his bright future is suddenly in jeopardy after a racist cop targets the mixed race young man.  After a night in jail, Crisp makes an ill-advised decision to go with casual acquaintance Glynnie Dryfus to buy some more pot from her dealer, JJ. Glynnie then drags both Crisp and JJ along with her on an ill-fated mission in Red Hook. Glynnie’s parents and Crisp’s mom report their children as missing and Detective Lex Cole and Detective Saki Finley work together to locate the errant teens.

Lex is fighting his demons following a horrible fight with his boyfriend, Adam.  Despite these distractions,  he works diligently to find Crisp.  Utilizing all of the technological resources available to them, they manage to retrace many of the Glynnie’s, JJ’s and Crisp’s stops from the night before. Unfortunately, they are a few steps behind Crisp and Lex and Saki are also stymied as they try to find out more details about JJ.

Crisp is highly intelligent but when it appears his plans for the future are ruined, he acts without thinking about the consequences of his choices.  He does have a few qualms about joining Glynnie, but he ignores his doubts. The situation goes horribly awry very quickly but Crisp manages to keep his wits about him as he tries to figure out how to escape from his increasingly dire situation.

Last Night is an riveting mystery that features a topical storyline that is quite insightful. The characters are well-rounded with realistic strengths and shortcomings. Lex’s situation with Adam revives painful memories and fears and he is tempted to return to unhealthy methods to help him cope. Crisp and Glynnie make some very poor choices that force them to grow up and accept responsibility for their actions. JJ’s story arc is utterly heartbreaking  and highlights how easy it is for at risk youths to fall through the cracks.  Karen Ellis brings this suspenseful and thought-provoking novel to an uplifting conclusion. I greatly enjoyed and highly recommend The Searchers series to fans of the genre.

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Filed under Contemporary, Karen Ellis, Last Night, Multnomah Books, Mystery, Rated B+, Review, Suspense, The Searchers Series

December 25, 2017 · 11:58 pm

Review: A Map of the Dark by Karen Ellis

Title: A Map of the Dark by Karen Ellis
The Searchers Series Book One
Publisher: Mullholland Books
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery, Suspense
Length: 304 pages
Book Rating: B+

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley

Summary:

A race-against-time thriller for fans of Tana French and Megan Abbott: to save a missing girl, FBI Agent Elsa Myers may have to lose herself…

Even as her father lies dying in a hospital north of New York City, FBI Agent Elsa Myers can’t ignore a call for help. A teenage girl has disappeared from Forest Hills, Queens, and during the critical first hours of the case, a series of false leads obscures the fact that she did not go willingly.

With each passing hour, as the hunt for Ruby deepens into a search for a man who may have been killing for years, Elsa’s carefully compartmentalized world collapses around her. She finds missing people, but she knows too well how it feels to be lost. Everything she has buried–her fraught relationship with her sister and niece, her self-destructive past, her mother’s death–threatens to resurface, with devastating consequences.

Can our most painful childhood secrets be forgotten? Or will they always find their way back into our adult lives? These questions lie at the heart of A Map of the Dark, a riveting portrait of a woman haunted by her family legacy, and a race-against-time thriller.

Review:

The first installment in The Searchers series, A Map of the Dark by Karen Ellis is a spellbinding mystery about an abducted teen.

FBI Agent Elsa Myers is in the midst of a heartrending family situation when her boss calls her in to aid Queens Detective Alexei “Lex” Cole with an urgent case with a missing teenager . Seventeen year old Ruby Haverstack disappeared one night after work and has not been seen since. She is not a troubled teen nor is it likely she ran away which makes her disappearance all the more suspicious. Elsa quickly discovers the case has not been handled quite as carefully as it should have been and valuable time has been lost in those crucial first hours of the investigation. Elsa is well aware she has a tendency to be a little too controlling but she finds it difficult to trust that Lex can handle the investigation since this is his first major case since transferring from Vice.  Despite her doubts, she and Lex work well together but will they find Ruby before it is too late?

Elsa is a veteran agent with several investigations under her belt but with everything going in her personal life, she is having a very hard time maintaining her objectivity and focus. She is a complex character who has not quite come to terms with her dysfunctional childhood which is front and center in her thoughts as works on Ruby’s case. Elsa is her own worst critic as she castigates herself for missing clues that no one, not even she, could have recognized without the information that is uncovered later in the investigation.

Once Elsa and Lex know the kidnapper’s identity, their investigation really gains traction. Although they quickly uncover other possible victims, they are at a loss as to  a motive for the crimes.  When an unexpected discovery provides a viable place to look for the Ruby, the case takes a shockingly personal turn for Elsa. With even more urgency to locate the victims, she, Lex and the other members of the investigative team feverishly search for the kidnapper’s lair.

With the chapters weaving back and forth in time between events from Elsa’s past and the hunt for Ruby, A Map of the Dark is a compelling police procedural.  Elsa is a deeply flawed but incredibly sympathetic lead protagonist who, when partnered with Lex,  finds someone who rather unnervingly slips past her formidable defenses. This first installment in Karen Ellis’s The Searchers series is a multi-layered crime drama that I highly recommend to fans of the genre.

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Filed under A Map of the Dark, Contemporary, Karen Ellis, Mulholland Books, Mystery, Rated B+, Review, Suspense, The Searchers Series