I received this book for free from NetGalley to facilitate my review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Duplicity by Shawn Wilson Series: Brick Kavanaugh Mystery #2
Published by Oceanview Publishing on 10/18/2022
Genres: Fiction / Mystery & Detective / Police Procedural, Fiction / Thrillers / Crime
Pages: 256
Format: ARC, eBook
Source: NetGalley
Amazon
Goodreads
This was not the homecoming Brick envisioned
After the trauma of his last case, and after three months spent recovering in Ireland, life is looking up for newly retired homicide detective Brian (Brick) Kavanagh. Back home in Washington, D.C., a new job shows promise when he's asked to train criminology students in cold case techniques.
Then he's off to a whirlwind weekend in Chicago with Nora, an Aer Lingus flight attendant he'd met in Ireland. There he receives shocking news that his former partner's wife and twin infants have been kidnapped. Brick rushes to D.C. to support Ron, the man who's always had his back—but as days pass, Brick questions how well he really knows this man.
Brick's cold case—the unsolved hit-and-run death of a college student—is heating up. Brick finds gaping holes in the original investigation. Is it possible diplomatic immunity granted someone a “get-out-of-jail-free card”?
Meanwhile, Ron's family tragedy unfolds in a most bizarre manner, and the escalating cold case points to D.C. corruption at the highest level. Things are getting complicated . . . very complicated . . . and dangerous.
Duplicity is perfect for fans of Michael Connelly and Robert Crais
While the novels in the Brick Kavanagh Mystery series stand on their own and can be read in any order, the publication sequence is:
Relentless
Duplicity
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I’m going to be quite honest – this review will be short. I’ve been trying to keep to using the CAWPILE headings for my reviews, but for this book, I think I’m just going to keep it short and sweet.
Duplicity is a decent book – it earned 3 stars, but it’s honestly nothing to write home about. For one thing, we start out with one plot line, then are slapped with a second plot line. We spend the majority of the book working on solving plot line #2, then go back and finish plot line #1 in a hurry. To me it almost felt like Shawn Wilson couldn’t figure out what he wanted to actually do with this book, so instead of separating the two plot lines into separate books, which I’d have preferred, he just did them both and hoped for the best.
For me, the characters are just meh. Maybe it was because I hadn’t read the first book, but it seemed to me that Brick Kavanaugh, our main character, just wasn’t remarkable. None of the characters really were. There just wasn’t anything about the characters that made me want to keep reading more books about them.
As far as the plot lines go – I actually enjoyed the second plot line more than the first. I actually wanted to know what was going to happen with plot line #2, while I honestly couldn’t have cared less about plot line #1. I’ll be honest, I don’t honestly know if I’d pick up another Shawn Wilson book.
