Review - Dead Game by Jennifer Chase

This was an excellently written, mystery and suspense novel with a bit of romance thrown in.  The writing of Dead Game by Jennifer Chase reminded me very much of James Patterson's early writing.  I'm sure that Emily Stone is quite capable of keeping her head above water and will be appearing in many novels to come just like Patterson's infamous Alex Cross.

The main character Emily Stone is a fabulous character; an ex-cop who is sparky, brave and very determined to help people who've been wronged.  She and Rick, also an ex-cop and her partner in both crime discovery and love, spend their lives searching for very bad people who've done very bad things to children.  They find the victims and the perpetrators and send all their evidence to the police then stand back so that the police can mop up!  The police don't know who is sending the information and say that it is coming from a "phantom detective".  Emily has a secret past and the police think that she is actually dead so they'll never know who is doing this amazing vigilante work. 

When the nephew of an ex partner of Rick's contacts him to say that his Uncle is dead and that he thinks its murder, they try to help him and they stumble across a series of murders which is extremely sick and gruesome and try to find out who the serial killer is who is doing these awful acts of slaughter.   

If you like a good murder mystery and suspense thriller, with lots of action and a bit of love thrown in,  then this book is definitely for you.  It's an exciting, thrilling, spine-tingling read which really does have you gripping the edge of your seat and wondering what the hell is going to happen in the end.  And talking of the end, I love the way that Jennifer leaves you with a bit of a teaser, waiting for the next book to come along.   This is the second Emily Stone novel, and I am SO looking forward to reading more about this fabulously exhilarating character.  

The short chapters make it so easy to 'just read a bit more' before you put it down and pick it up at every opportunity.  I only started it yesterday, was shocked when after reading it in bed this morning, realised it was much later than I thought and that I'd better get a shimmy on, to get to work on time and left me delighted when I got home from work tonight to find out that there was no-one in and I could sit in the garden in the blazing sunshine and finish it!  I was determined I wasn't moving till I found out what happened! 

Jennifer Chase holds a bachelor's degree in police forensics and a master's degree in criminology. She also holds certifications in serial crime and criminal profiling and is a member of the International Association of Forensic Criminologists so she definitely knows what she's talking about.  Compulsion is the first novel that stars Emily Stone and I love that Jennifer has a section of her website that gives you some background to Emily, this can be found here.  Jennifer lives in California where is working on her next novel.    Her website can be found here.