I didn't know it was a devil town: THE WRONG VICTIM.

The Wrong Victim by Allison Brennan
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

On the small San Juan Islands, a bomb explodes on an evening charter cruise, killing everyone on board. This includes Neil, the boat's pilot and a former FBI agent, and Vince Jefferies, the wealthy older husband of Madelyn Jefferies, who bows out of the cruise at the last minute when she realizes an old acquaintance is on board. The cruise is run by the West End Charter company, who is disliked by a group of activists and environmentalists who blame them for leaking fuel into the local waters and doing other things to threaten the islands. Was it one of these groups who bombed the cruise? A disgruntled convict Neil put away in his former life as an agent? Vince's children who resented his marriage to the younger Madelyn? Special agent Matt Costa and detective Kara Quinn and the rest of the Mobile Response Team have their work cut out for them determining the motive--before another bomb can explode on the small island.

This was an intriguing story, but wow, was it long with a lot of names and characters to keep track of! It seemed every chapter included more names and intricacies to follow. When I requested this book, I did not realize it was part of a series. The mystery stands alone, but there were definitely team dynamics between Matt, Kara, and the rest of the group that I felt I was missing. Because of these, the team fought a lot. This in-fighting also got old quickly, and I would have preferred more focus on the cases at hand.

The actual plot here--a bombing that seems to be tied to a series of cold case murders--kept my interest. It was somewhat easy to figure out a part of it fairly quickly, but there were parts that kept me guessing. I think VICTIM would have benefited from being shortened a bit (cut that fighting!). There is a lot of small town drama; some of it is appropriate, but some seems too much.

Overall, this is an interesting story filled with character dynamics and a bit of drama. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 here. I would be intrigued enough to read the next book in the series.

I received a copy of this book Harlequin Trade Publishing/MIRA and Netgalley in return for an unbiased review.

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