Reviewed by Becca
TITLE: Stalker
AUTHOR: Edward Kendrick
PUBLISHER: JMS Books LLC
LENGTH: 149 pages
RELEASE DATE: September 7, 2019
BLURB:
When PI Jake Marshall fails to stop the abduction and subsequent murder of a client who was being stalked, he vows to do everything in his power to identify the man responsible. He’ll need all the help he can get, including Kelly, his partner in the agency, and Russ Foster, a library security guard he met at a local bar … with whom he’s becoming personally involved.
Soon, it becomes even more imperative they find the stalker when a friend of Jake’s also disappears and everything points to the stalker as his abductor.
Can Jake and Russ stop the stalker before he kills again? And how will their search affect their budding relationship, presuming the stalker doesn’t target one of them next?
REVIEW:
Ok, I will tell you right now, this is one hell of a book, but it comes with some major warnings. It deals with stalking, kidnapping, murder, attempted murder, beatings, homophobia, child abuse, christian fanatics, etc. It is a very intense book and can be very dark. So just be aware. If you love murder mysteries, then this is a good one to read.
Jake is a PI who’s used to dealing with boring cases at times. To kill off what he feels is his boring life, he pops to one of his favorites bars and has a few drinks and heads home. Since his breakup with his ex, he just hasn’t been in the mood for much in the way of another man, even though they parted as friends. Until he meets Russ. At first, Russ just wanted someone to talk to/ A friend to hang with, but the more they started hanging out, the more interest seemed to spark. Until a case Jake was working on started getting more serious. But Russ decided to be his wingman and help and Jake more than needed it. Even if it was someone to vent to when he was frustrated at how things were going. A man named Alan came to him saying he felt he was being stalked. Jake checked his car for a tracker and found on. He removed it by Alan’s wishes and told Alan to call if anything escalated. Alan called a few days later to say all was alright, but the next day he vanished. He was kidnapped and found a few days later dead. Beaten to a pulp by some kind of whip and stabbed. Jake was so upset, because he did everything he could to find Alan in time. He was the one that found most of the clues, even when the police kept telling him to back off. But when a friend of his went missing next, Jake was beyond pissed and was determined this wasn’t going to happen again. But it did. Later that day he was found, fortunately still alive. The stab wound missed his heart. Jake stepped up his game to try to find this guy, but the guy found him and threatened Russ. With a protection detail on Russ to draw the guy out, Jake went home pissed, and was caught. And with this guy’s record, he may not make it out alive.
I felt so bad for Jake in this book. Survivor’s guilt is a horrible thing. Even with at the time, he wasn’t even a victim. But knowing more could have possibly been done, at least according to him, he felt bad knowing his client was dead and his friend was near death, with a long road to recovery. Going into having Russ threatened, he probably already needed someone to talk to, which he had Russ for for a bit. But with Russ being threatened, he had to leave to try to bait this guy and he had no outlet for all his grief, guilt and so forth. It put things into perspective for him when Russ was threatened. He realized he cared for Russ a lot more than he let on and now he may not even be able to tell him. Russ was feeling the same way.
It’s sad that sometimes it takes tragedy to wake us up and make things a priority or put them into perspective. It’s also hard to deal with the blows Jake had to deal with. Cops deal with it every day and I have to commend them because there’s no way I could do it, day after day and not be totally just sick and disgusted with life and people. With Jake not being a cop, he didn’t see it every day but he had his own stuff that caused him to see the bad in people. But this I don’t think anyone can prepare you for.
It’s one hell of a murder mystery. Especially when you find out some details at the end. Makes you kind of want to smack some people. So if you want a good murder mystery, this is it for you.
RATING: 
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