Secondhand Smoke

Jake Brand PI, Book 2

By: M. Louis

Narrated by: Colin Iago McCarthy

Running for his life wasn't exactly what Portland PI, Jake Brand, had in mind when he accepted his latest client - but that's exactly what he and Sarah, his best friend and assistant, find themselves doing in this heart-pounding sequel to Angel's Devil.

Deception, fueled by money, begins when a beautiful woman throws down serious cash for Jake to find her missing boyfriend. Violence follows when Jake and Sarah discover the couple is connected to a hacker who colors outside the lines, a beautiful pharmaceutical sales rep, a slimy cop who can't take a punch, and a federal agent bent on hiding the truth. They all know too much - and soon enough, so do Jake and Sarah.

In the midst of the danger, Jake finds time to annoy his yoga instructor, and fall for the woman with more secrets than answers.

©2015 M. Louis (P)2016 Palisades Events LLC dba Palisades Publishing

lots of action and danger

Jake Brand, PI finds himself in yet another mess.  His new client is attractive and aggressive – she wants her boyfriend found but she keeps hitting on Jake.  Mix in a hacker who does things unconventionally, a gorgeous Agent, a dirty cop and some hoodlums and you have a deadly combination for Jake and his colleagues/friends.

Mixed with lots of action and danger, Jake falls for a beautiful woman who … well, she shakes him up in more ways than one by the end of the book!  While this is book 2 in a series, it can be read as a stand-alone.  This book has the back story to Jake, his friends and those he loves which makes a more thorough connection for the reader.

Louis does an excellent job of laying out the plot and then seeing each thread of it through tying everything up nicely. His writing style is brisk yet smooth, character development is full and not overly complex – some authors make the mistake of being too involved, Louis does just the right amount of character development enabling the reader to become entrenched in not only the story but invested in the characters.

We all have a little “devil” and little “angel” sitting on our shoulders but Jake’s is more outspoken than most.  I enjoy the inner dialog his conscience has with himself – it’s fun and lighthearted but so packed full of wisdom – such as never tell a woman her morning face is worse than yours – no, you tell her she is magnificent every single second of the day!  Fun yet full of twists and turns.

Colin Iago McCarthy does an excellent performance.  His voice is Jake Brand down to the husky throaty voice.  It is always exciting to hear an audiobook where the narrator becomes the character – they own it – McCarthy owns Jake Brand, PI!  There is no doubt that he is Jake.  His performance was flawless – no stumbling or missing words – everything was fluid and correct.  I enjoy McCarthy’s reading.

There were no issues with the audio production of this book.

Audiobook was provided for review by the author.

Please find this complete review and many others at my review blog

[If this review helped, please press YES. Thanks!]