Review: Only the Brave by Mel Sherratt

Publication Date: May 26, 2015

Synopsis:
Someone has killed one of the notorious Johnson brothers. Along with that, a bag of money that was supposed to be with the body has gone missing.

DS Allie Shenton's team has been called in to solve the murder and catch the killer, but with uncooperative witnesses and statements that keep getting more and more tangled, Allie doesn't have the time to slowly push through the web of lies.

As she works the case, things suddenly become more personal when her sister's attacker from seventeen years ago begins stalking her, drudging up the past again.

Thoughts:
This was quite exciting to pick up, especially since Mel Sherratt had written another book that I read earlier this year, Follow the Leader. When I saw this on NetGalley, I just knew that I needed to read it too.

This was actually one of the few books that I didn't take any notes for, because the story stayed with me pretty vividly. I thought about the book occasionally when I wasn't reading it, and found myself wanting to finish the book so I could see how it ended.

I enjoyed the plot a lot and seeing how the case unfolded. I also really liked how fast-paced the book is, as the events take place in two days. There was plenty of action, drama, and even street politics to keep things entertaining. On top of that, we have a cast of characters that you never really know how to feel about because they're so bad, but so good at being bad. I mean, that's not saying that it was attractive or anything, but despite the fact that they were terrible people, you felt like you really wanted to keep reading and finding out more about them.

The ending was entirely satisfactory and did a good job of setting up the next book in the series, which I am looking forward to reading.

When I think about it, I don't really have a whole lot to say about the book. It was a very solid sequel, had a good plot, good characters, and there really wasn't anything I could fault it on. The only reason why I didn't give it 5 stars was because I didn't really connect with the characters.

Character(s):
I liked Allie enough, though I didn't connect with her. I think it might be the age gap of 20+ years that prevented it. She was interesting to read about and I enjoyed her as a character, but I do think that our age gap prevented me from relating to her and just establishing a connection.

There was something that I didn't like about a couple of characters, which was that they knew from the beginning that lying to the police would get them nowhere, but they chose to do it and keep up with their fake story until the police eventually unraveled it. Then they would make various claims about being afraid and hoping that they would never be found out. That was really the only thing that annoyed me about the book, this blatant dishonesty from character who were bad at lying and we found out anyway.

Overall:
4 stars. I do recommend reading this if you've read the previous book. I'm sure you could read it as a standalone as well, but I think that reading the previous book would give you some more insight into some thing that happen here.

Acknowledgements:
Thank you to NetGalley for hosting this on your site. Thank you also to Thomas & Mercer for approving my request to read this in exchange for an honest review.