Freeman hit his stride (LOL! No pun intended!) in book 2: Stripped, and somehow managed to trip in book 3: Stalked. This is a bit long, but I don't think I give anything away. My issues. These are items that pulled me out of the book - a phrase, a comment, whatever. I don't like to be pulled out of the plot, it makes me cranky and less likely to want to continue. Dude. Don't be throwing crap in my lake. Not cool. It wasn't cool when Stride threw his cigarettes in the Canal in book one and it's not cool now with a glass wine bottle. Duluth Courthouse and Federal buildings are grey. Not tan. I've checked. Several times. Still grey. I'm pretty certain the author called them tan in the book. Could be wrong. Hard to go back and check on an audiobook. Really, a bugged house again? Did that in book two. This was also left unresolved. I'm just guessing here (but an educated hypothesis), that a battery operated transmitter, placed outside a house in 0* weather, is not going to give you two miles of frequency in those temps. You will be lucky if it operates for a couple-three hours before it freezes up and stops working. Just guessing...because my handheld field grade GPS system doesn't last in temps like that. If Stride and Maggie didn't want to be seen meeting together in Duluth, why not meet in Cloquet? Or Two Harbors? Central High School is not exactly a private meeting place.... The female protagonist - Serena - is at one point handcuffed and running for her life. She runs through the deep snow, down and embankment, through some brush and into a railyard. Where she is caught - we are lead to believe - unconscious. Later we find out that the antagonist somehow carried her back across the snowy railyard, through the brush, down and up the embankment, across another snowy expanse, to the waiting car. Carrying a unconscious person that far is...difficult, at best, during non-snow conditions. Through the snow? Implausible. Why the fascination with rape? This applies to other authors too, that it seems to be "cool" to place a stong female protagonist in a position of utter helplessness and vulnerability. It is demeaning to women. Ah. A blizzard in Northern MN on a lake. You are not going to be doing donuts in your vehicles. You will not be sliding around like a zamboni. Depending upon how much snow was already on the ground (and I think this was set in January/February-ish?), the lake is probably not going to be ice-skating rink clean. You will not be driving willy-nilly across it. There will be a plowed road to the ice village. Maybe two depending on how many access points on the lake there are. But to just bounce off and go driving across? Not. Gonna. Happen. And I have my doubts about how fast a burning ice shack will melt into the ice.... I have my doubts about the whole burning ice shack scene. Lastly, I totally get the giggles when a character in the book (any book really) shouts, "You Bastard!". It's a South Park thing...I'm sure my fellow travelers on the highway were wondering why I was pounding my fists on my steering wheel. It could have been because of the lake in the blizzard scene. It could have been because of the burning ice shack scene. It could have been because of - again - endings upon endings upon endings. Yes, I was shouting at the story. You can do that when it's an audiobook.Needless to say, I had a few issues with this book. Too much introspection and exposition by the characters, the 'chase and rescue' scene just went on forever (see note about beating fists against steering wheel), and way too many items yanked me out of the plot. I don't feel I can really expound on more without giving plot away, and I would prefer you to form your own opinion - if you decide to read it. Recommendation - ahh, a maybe. If you've read the first two and still like Stride and Serena.
Goodreads Description- Lieutenant Jonathan Stride knows his partner Maggie Bei is in trouble when she reports a deadly crime on a bitter winter night. She's obviously hiding a terrible secret, and her silence only feeds suspicion. Maggie isn't the only one keeping secrets in Duluth. A seductive young woman has disappeared, leaving behind a stash of lurid fantasies and a cryptic message: I know who it is. Following a twisted trail, Stride uncovers a sordid web of violence and voyeurism that someone is willing to kill to keep hidden. Stride isn't alone. His lover Serena Dial - a homicide cop turned private investigator - is chasing a blackmailer who knows all the city's dirty secrets. Even Maggie's. But as Stride and Serena hunt for a killer, a predator with a vicious past is hunting them - with a terrifying plan for revenge. Now every step they take to expose the truth brings them closer to a showdown amid the howling winds of a winter storm. Where survival in the blinding snow is measured in seconds. Where crimes can be buried forever.I loved this book, but then again I have loved all of the Jonathan Stride series books. As always they are action packed and have me at the edge of my seat. And when things start falling into place, I cannot stop reading because he writes in such a way that just draws the reader into the action that you just can't stop! His books are also like a roller coaster ride. Freeman takes you up the big hill and drops you fast thinking you know what is going on, but then the next hill comes and it takes you on a whole other plunge constantly changing directions. This is an excellent book and I often recommend this series to others who want to read a gritty mystery about the underbelly of society, with no holds barred. Maybe I am being picky, but I figured out something pretty early on and I just hate when that happens but don't worry, Freeman is great at throwing an awesome change up. Excellent read! 4 stars!
What do You think about Stalked (2008)?
Brian Freeman has never let me down. In this 3rd outing, Jonathan Stride returns from a Las Vegas with Serena to take back his job with the Duluth Minnesota Police Department. Jonathan receives an urgent call from Maggie, his former partner when she awakes to find that her semi-estranged husband is found dead in their home. Of course, Maggie is the prime suspect, spouses always are. Stride and Serena set out to find the truth only to find themselves in much deeper then either would have suspected. Serena’s background is put to the test when not only does it come back to haunt her, but to literally bite her. You have to pay attention in this book because nothing is quite as it seems. Who is after whom and why gets a bit twisted but in a way that Freeman is famous for and will keep you turning the pages. I highly recommend this author. His foray’s into the underbelly always make for a fascinating read
—Nancy
This is why I love Brian Freeman mysteries! Almost no other author in my experience can interweave a tapestry of secrets, characters, retribution, traumas past and present, revelations, and just plain outrageously exciting denouement, like this author. “Stalked” is non-stop excitement and intrigue. When I grow up, I want to write like Mr. Freeman.Jonathan Stride is back in Duluth, Minnesota, his home town, after a brief and unpretty stint as a homicide detective in Las Vegas. Offered his former position as Lieutenant of the Homicide Bureau once again, he jumps at the opportunity, and his new love Serena Dial agrees to resign as a Vegas detective and become a private investigator in Minnesota. Stride even manages to find a home on the Point, where he grew up and lived during the twenty years of his first marriage and for three years after his beloved Cindy succumbed to cancer.Stride doesn’t just “take up where he left off,” though-his former protégé, forensic technician Maggie Bei, has undergone a series of miscarriages, is in the midst of marital conflicts-and then her husband is suddenly murdered, with her gun, while she is upstairs asleep. Stride refuses to believe Maggie could be guilty, but the evidence, and the conviction of the detective in charge, stand against her. She adds to the mountain of evidence by refusing to tell the truth about the last few months, and about the troubles in her marriage. Shortly Stride and Serena begin to unravel an incredibly complex multi-layered tapestry of crime, immorality, selfishness, and greed, as only author Brian Freeman can construct it.
—Mallory Heart
Chances are if you're reading this you've read Brian Freeman's previous two Jonathan Stride novels. If you haven't I just have to ask you, WHY NOT???As with Immoral and Stripped, Freeman is a master of the page turning psychological thriller. As usual I won't go into plot too much because it's been recounted many times in other reviews.Serena and Stride are back in John's native Minnesota. He did take the job to be head detective that was offered to him in the latter portion of Stripped. The best thing about the book taking place in Minnesota is we get a good dosage of Maggy Bei, Stride's old partner. I missed reading Maggie in stripped because she's a smart and funny chop-busting little fireplug of a character. Only things aren't going too well for her this time. She's off the force and married to a rich sporting goods business owner. The problem is, he ends up dead in their home..by her gun...things aren't so sunny for Maggy these days.Serena, no longer a cop decides to start being a private eye. She takes a job for an old 'friend' of Stride's from Immoral. What's the job? Making a money drop for an eminent public official who's being blackmailed.And that's only the half of it. Murder, betrayal, underground sex clubs. There's a lot going on in this book. It shows the seedy underbelly of Duluth and the people that live there.Sex is a big portion of the plot in this book but Freeman excels at writing about adult subjects like that without making them seem tawdry or just a weak plot device.Brian Freeman is quickly moving up my favorite authors list. This is about as consuming a read as you're likely to find with rich characters and great dialogue. He blends relationships, police work, fun to read characters and complex plots that keep you guessing up until the last page wonderfully.I can't recommend this and his previous two novels enough. Grade A reading.
—Matt Schiariti
