The Red Hot Fix - A Justice Novel

by T. E. Woods

Random House Publishing Group - Alibi (June 10 2014)

284 pages - 2.99 $

In the white-knuckle follow-up to her explosive debut novel, The Fixer, T. E. Woods returns with another tense, intricate thriller.

What do you say, Morton Grant, Chief of Detectives? You got what it takes to find me? Show me a move. . . . Or I’ll have to show you one of mine.

A little more than a year after the Fixer killings, Detective Mort Grant of the Seattle PD once again has his hands full. In the last four months, seven men have been murdered in seedy pay-by-the-hour motels: first strangled, then tied with rope and set on a bed of crushed mothballs, with a red lipstick kiss planted on their foreheads. Speculation abounds that the killer is a prostitute who’s turning her tricks into dead men. The press has taken to calling her “Trixie.”

As Mort follows scant leads in the case, he can’t help but feel continued guilt over his involvement with the Fixer. Though the public holds her up as a folk hero, a vigilante who seeks justice when the system fails, Mort cannot shake the fact that serious crimes have been committed. And though legend says she has vanished, Mort knows exactly where the Fixer is—and he’s conspiring to keep her hidden.

As Trixie strikes again, Mort suddenly finds himself and his family in the crosshairs. Because these new murders are not random, and their perpetrator is hell-bent on luring Mort into a sick and twisted game. If he’s not careful, he’s going to need Fixing.

What's about that book

I found it nice to meet again with Mort and Lydia, two characters I enjoyed in The Fixer. Mort's son also plays a more important role which is very nice, since in the first volume he seemed to be a very nice guy! (He even married a French girl... so he's necessarily a good guy, mwahaha!) Among the new character, Trixie of course, hateful to perfection but also a female character who becomes closed to Mort... and there TE Woods plays well with innuendo and misunderstandings, so that one begins to be sure to have found Trixie to better realize that one's been having.

There are two parallel stories in this book, two investigations that meet at one point, one bait to another. The first follows Trixie and the leads to find her. The second follows the murder of the owner of a basketball team. I must admit that I struggled to get interested in the second story, mainly because we follow an awful lot the basketball team before the murder. I couldn't see the point to know in detail the sultry life of the owner, his wife's depression, or even attend a basketball game live, with a lot of technical terms. It happens regularly in TV series that an inspector follow several investigations at the same time and this is often done well but here I often asked "but what they have to do with the story those ones? "

A third story is also present in this book and it's about Lydia who is recovering from her near death (read The Fixer!) This part is very interesting and allows you to see a more human side of Lydia. I found it very good how she "fixes" the problem she encounters. Lydia manages to find back the sensations she felt when she Fixed things while finding a new way to do it. The character evolves and it's cleverly done. Once again, the author confuses us by leaving us guessing what will happen... to twist the situation better.

In a nutshell

Basketball fans will enjoy reading this book, the characters are well written, the story is going well but, for my part, the Trixie investigation would have sufficed. This is a 3.5 / 5 for me.

Warning: An e- galley of this title was provided to me by the publisher. No review has been promised and chronic above is an unbiased review of the novel.

The Fixer

A Justice Novel

de T. E. Woods

Alibi (Feb. 4 2014)

312 pages - 2.99 $ (Kindle)

T. E. Woods delivers a fast-paced thriller—the first in an electrifying new series—peopled with sharp, intriguing characters and more twists and turns than a corkscrew.

Never a doubt. Never a mistake. Always for justice. Never for revenge.She’s the person you hire when you need something fixed - permanently. With a strict set of criteria, she evaluates every request and chooses only a few. No more than one job per country, per year. She will only step in if it’s clear that justice will not be served any other way. Her jobs are completed with skill and precision, and never result in inquiry or police investigation. The Fixer is invisible - and quite deadly. . .

In the office of a clinical psychologist in Olympia, Washington, a beautiful young woman is in terrible emotional pain. She puts up walls, tells lies, and seems to speak in riddles, but the doctor is determined to help her heal, despite the fact that she claims to have hurt many people. As their sessions escalate, the psychologist feels compelled to reach out to the police . . . but it might be too late.

In Seattle, a detective gets a call from his son. A dedicated journalist, he wants his father’s expertise as he looks into a suspicious death. Together they follow the trail of leads toward a stone-cold hired killer—only to find that death has been closer than either could have imagined.

What's good about it?

It 's been awhile since I had not been completely blown away by a book and this was the case for The Fixer. The middle of the novel was a big twist. Perhaps other readers - especially those who rack their brains to find the clues and try to solve the mystery by themselves - will not be as surprised as me. But for readers like me - the kind who likes to be surprised - this is pure happiness!

Reading the blurb of the book, I was curious to see how the killer would be written. Does she would be very too masculine or too aggressive, as female killers can be seen in much of the books or movies... Well, not at all. T.E. Woods managed to make The Fixer very effective - fatally efficient - without making a monster of her. Instead, we are surprised to be on her side of " righteousness " as some cops in the book by the way. What's good it that one enjoys as much the criminal as the police who track her and especially Mort Grant, the detective. We discover technical aspects used by the police to investigate and, again, the effectiveness shows up. No caricatures in this novel, no exaggerated characters but realistic ones with realistic motifs.

About the course of the story, again, no complaints about the accuracy and realism of the investigation. The noose tightens around the killer, as well as the link between her and the police and you want to know how she'll do to get away or what Mort will do about her. You know it's wrong to kill people... that she should stop doing that but at the same time you don't want her to go to prison for having freed the world of perfect criminals who knew how to play with the law to get their free card. At one point everything seems to be going well, then everything changes... then everything changes... Until the end of the book where, frankly, I wanted to shed a tear... then everything changes!

In a nutshell

A very good book, the first one of a series. With characters intelligently written and realistics. A series of twists and a story that keeps you going! It is a 4/5 for me!

*******

I received this book from Random House Publishing Group - Alibi on NetGalley , to make an honest critique .