Tahoe Deathfall

Owen McKenna #1

by Todd Borg

When 14-year-old Jennifer Salazar approaches Tahoe Detective Owen McKenna, she explains that her identical twin sister Melissa died 8 years before on their 6th birthday. Now, at the ripe old age of 14, Jennifer has come to believe that her sister's death was not the accident that everyone says. When McKenna investigates, he uncovers a long-buried secret that is still driving a murderer to kill. McKenna is desperate to catch the killer before he strikes again because McKenna believes that Jennifer is next to die...

Genres: Mystery, Thriller, Fiction, Mystery Thriller, Suspense, Amazon, Book Club

183 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 1, 2001

About the author

Todd Borg and his wife moved from Minnesota to Lake Tahoe in 1990. After his fourth Tahoe novel, he sold his business to write full time.

In addition to winning the Ben Franklin Award for Best Mystery of the Year, Todd Borg's Owen McKenna mysteries have been chosen for Top 5 Mystery lists by the prestigious Library Journal, and by Mystery News Reviewer G. Wedgwood. He's won Best Mystery and Best Thriller honors from the Bay Area Independent Publishers Association and received Best New Fiction accolades from libraries. His novels have also received starred reviews and raves in major trade journals and newspapers across the country.

Todd Borg and his wife live on Lake Tahoe's South Shore.

Series:
* Owen McKenna Mystery

Reviews

[Glen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eight years ago, a pair of twins went hiking, and one fell off a cliff. Now 14, the surviving twin hires Owen to investigate the death. Owen starts poking around, and finds the twn belongs to a very eccentric, and possibly dangerous family.

Pretty good.

[Mir · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mediocre mystery that mainly interested me for its local setting. Could've used better editing. There were both typos of the site/sight, vane/vain variety and plot weakness that needed someone to press the author to think them through. The first boat scene was especially implausible Seriously? You're risking theft AND kidnapping charges to test whether the timing of a boat trip is plausible? You couldn't figure it out with a little math? Lake Tahoe is not exactly uncharted territory. and the detective's commitment was not adequately explained. Is he independently wealthy and just detecting for fun/ethics? Maybe that was mentioned in the previous book, which I didn't read. Also, he was kind of a Gary Stu, what with all his amazeballs skills and cooking* and faithful dog and perfectly-situated mountain cabin and attractiveness to women.


Emerald Bay

*Except no one who was really a good cook would microwave a steak and then be surprised that it was rubbery.

[Linden · Rating 3 out of 5]

Owen McKenna has an unusual request: 14 year old Jennifer wants to hire him to find out what happened to her identical twin sister Melissa when they were 6 years old; Jennifer believes Melissa was murdered. With the help of his entomologist girlfriend Street, Owen tries to protect Jennifer when it becomes apparent that someone's trying to kill her. But who, and why? There are many family secrets, apparently, and Jennifer will never be safe until these secrets are revealed.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this novel very much, for the most part, Borg is great on characterizations, plots and descriptions of locals......Lake Tahoe is pretty familiar to me as I live in Nevada, so was able to recognize all the places he so aptly describes. Loved the protagonist Owen and his Great Dane dog Spot, along with his interesting girlfriend Street. Fourteen year old Jennifer Salazar hires P I Owen Mc Kenna to solve the mystery of her twin sister’s accidental death when they were 6 years old, as she thinks it was murder. Owen is reluctant to because of her age, but she can well afford it with a trust of four hundred sixty four million. A good read, had me guessing all the way, highly recommend it! Nice, fast easy read.....

[David Freas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Borg tended to refer to some people by one name only, which caused a bit of confusion with McKenna’s girlfriend. Is ‘Street’ her first name or last? It seemed odd he’d call her by her last name but Street seemed equally odd as a first name so I wasn’t sure until several chapters after he first mentions her when he reveals her full name is Street Casey. I had the same problem with ‘Mallory,’ his cop friend. It could be a male or female name. It’s not until several pages later that Borg reveals Mallory is a guy.

I have zero interest in paintings and sculptures, so Borg’s constant references to them did nothing to enhance this book. And McKenna’s constant musing on the meaning of an Edward Hopper painting only makes it worse. Frankly (and this may be a bias on my part), people who are always talking about art in any form come across as trying to show how sophisticated they are. And that doesn’t carry any weight with me.

By the way, Mr. Borg, the past tense of pet is petted.

Those quibbles aside, this is a fairly good story about money and greed and family secrets. Borg has enough twists in the story line to keep interest high but not so many that they become overwhelming or unbelievable.

I’ll read more in this series if they come my way.

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Owen McKenna is starting a new P.I. business. A new customer arrives with a case for him. The problem is that the client is 14 years old Jennifer Salazar. Eight years ago on their sixth birthday, her twin was found dead from a fall while hiking in the Tahoe area. Jennifer is convinced it was not an accident and that it was murder. She wants to hire Owen to investigate. Due to her age, Owen would need consent from an adult relative. When Owen feels that Jennifer is in danger, he gets pulled into investigating without pay.

The book was a very fast read for me. I liked the character of Owen, his girlfriend Street and his Great Dane dog Spot. One of the best features of the book was the location of the Lake Tahoe area. It is featured in locations and descriptions. The book made me wish that I could visit the area. One thing that pulled me out of the book for awhile, is that Owen was made super human in some of the feats he pulled off. It was not believable but it is fiction.

The mystery was quite good. This is the beginning book of a long and popular series that is getting good ratings. I did order the next book in the series to read.

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book because I have a home in Tahoe and liked the references to all the places I've been or might like to go. The basic story is intriguing although the main character, a private investigator named Owen McKenna, who is a retired San Francisco police officer, goes through an unbelievable series of trials and tribulations to solve a mystery/crime. Many of Owen's incredible accomplishments in order to solve the crime could NOT happen in real life. Among other things, I liked his references to the American artist, Edward Hopper, and his way of integrating the theme of loneliness embodied in the Hopper painting "New York Movie" into a basis for the theme of motive behind the crime committed in the story. I believe this may be Borg's first book, written in 2001, so he may evolve as a better writer in his subsequent books, since he has an additional 9 with the same main character. I haven't read any of Borg's other books yet. The book is not deep or too complicated, but I enjoyed the read.

[Katy Glaittli · Rating 2 out of 5]

remember this summer when we were talking about 5 star 3 star movies? This is a 5 star 3 star book. Absolutely ridiculous and very Men Writing Women subreddit…. However I did tear through it

[Frank · Rating 4 out of 5]

Our family recently spent the day at Lake Tahoe, hiking and going to the beach. We also visited a few gift shops there and I noticed a series of mystery books on sale there by Todd Borg. These books all had Tahoe in the title so I assumed they took place there. After returning home, I checked on this series and found some pretty good reviews of them so I decided to check out the first in the series, TAHOE DEATHFALL, from the library. It turned out to be a pretty good mystery/thriller.



Owen McKenna is a former police officer who is now a private investigation located at Lake Tahoe. In this volume, he is contacted by a 14-year-old girl, Jennifer Salazar, who wants him to investigate the death of her sister who she insists was murdered. The twin sister fell from a cliff while hiking with Jennifer and their grandma when they were six years old. Jennifer feels that her life is also in danger but no one believes her sister was murdered. Owen tends to believe Jennifer and takes the case "off book" because Jennifer is a minor. Jennifer is an heir to a fortune so could that be cause for the possible murder of her sister? Owen ends up following leads that take him from San Francisco to Jennifer's rich uncle's private island off the coast of Santa Barbara and then to an asylum near Las Vegas where Jennifer's mother has been held for many years as a schizophrenic. But is she really mentally disturbed? Along with the mother's help, Owen is able to untangle the mystery around the Salazar family and what really happened. Overall, a good read. There are 15 novels in this series and I'll probably be reading more of them.

[Mark Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lake Tahoe is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been to. Situated on the California/Nevada border, Lake Tahoe offers fantastic summer and winter activities. My uncle lived in South Lake Tahoe for more than 30 years. He passed away in March, at the age of 92. Last week we had a celebration of life service for my uncle. On that trip, I found Todd Borg’s series of mystery novels set in and around Lake Tahoe. I don’t often read mysteries or thrillers, but I decided to pick up Tahoe Deathfall, the first book in Borg’s series of novels featuring the private detective Owen McKenna.

Tahoe Deathfall opens with 14-year-old Jennifer Salazar wanting to hire Owen to look into the death of her twin sister Melissa. When Jennifer and Melissa were six years old, Melissa fell off a cliff while hiking. Jennifer always felt that Melissa’s death was more than just an accident. Owen starts investigating the case, and of course there are more layers to unravel.

Owen McKenna is a fun and engaging lead character. One of the things I enjoyed most about Owen is that he is an appreciator of art. He has a poster of Edward Hopper’s New York Movie in his office, and his ruminations about art are fun to read.

It’s always fun to read about places that you know very well, and I enjoyed reading about Emerald Bay and Zephyr Cove and thinking to myself, “Hey, I’ve been there!” It’s the little things. If you’re unfamiliar with Lake Tahoe, there’s a helpful map at the beginning of the book.

Owen is aided in his investigation by his harlequin Great Dane Spot, and his girlfriend Street, who is a forensic entomologist. They make a fun team, and Owen and Street have a fun relationship.

I was looking at Todd Borg’s website, and I learned that he grew up in Minnesota, my home state, so it’s fun that I have two places in common with him. If you’re looking for an engaging mystery series, pick one of Todd Borg’s Tahoe series.

[Merenwen Inglorion · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars, rounded down due to enjoyment

Things I liked:
-a few characters had consistent personality and speech patterns
-the setting was portrayed well
-the dog seemed like he would be very huggable

Things I didn't like:
-the conversations were more often than not stiff; it was obvious when the conversation was meant to propell the plot because they suddenly read like bad actors (speech pattern shifts, de emphasis on personality)
-the setting, while accurately described, felt more like a cardboard background than an actual setting (all of the setting description read as filler text rather than adding anything to the atmosphere or character actions)
-no "aha I was right" feeling because it was glaringly obvious to the reader who the murderer was and that the detective was occupied with the wrong suspect (up until the very last moment I presume; I skipped to the end while he was still tailing Muscles because it dragged on for so long)
-either the author or the detective appear to have a thing for describing muscles and short ladies
-the detective's methodology consisted of roughly 5% actual detective work, and 95% pondering his favorite posters and the actions of soap beetles until he perceived some revelation about human nature

Overall not something I regret reading, but I wouldn't read it again or continue the series.

[Megan Rose Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pre-read thoughts/notes: I picked this up because I lived literally a half an hour/an hour from Tahoe and I had recently heard about the local Todd Borg. I thought it would be really cool to check it out so I picked up a copy.

It was really, really cool to read about places that I lived around. Gardnerville/Carson City/ Reno/Tahoe rarely ever gets mentioned in books or movies like that. The author was able to take what he knew about his hometown and describe it in a way that allows readers to immerse themselves in the story. This book was a short one, but the story was really good and always the plot twists on you just when you thought you figured it out. I will definitely be picking up more of Todd Borg's books and I heard there are a lot of them. Highly recommended.

[MICHAEL MAST · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great character, Owen McKenna! Great 1st book and cannot wait to read them all.

[Ted Tayler · Rating 4 out of 5]

"A slick well-written story"

A good read for the most part. An interesting story line, genuine characters and the odd touch of humour. Some passages dragged especially the science stuff about maggots. Still, that'll teach me to read at the dinner table. Owen McKenna is a private eye I could follow through a series, no problem.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

My sister sent me a book for Christmas, although not this book; she sent me Louise Erdrich's Round House. That is a book I must be destined to read, because my teen daughter ended up with a copy in one of those Christmas party gift exchanges and managed to trade it off for warm cozy socks and a Christmas album on CD...then another copy of Round House showed up in my house 3 days later. It's fate.

What does that have to do with this book, you might be asking? Well, of course I had to go buy my sister a Christmas present because she keeps sending me gifts even though she shouldn't; so I figured I'd also give her a book. I had assumed my sister was sending me another mystery by a DC area author Austin Camacho, since she sent us a signed copy of one of his books a few years ago. Instead she sent me a different mystery by a more well known author, but at that point the idea of buying her a book from a local mystery writer from my neck of the woods was already on my mind.

Instead of sending her the autographed copy Viral Nation by local author Shaunta Grimes, a book that I bought for that Christmas part gift exchange, but then forgot about, forcing me to give away my daughter's warm, cozy socks and that Anuna Christmas CD I picked up on clearance from Border's, I drove out to the Red Hut Café in Reno. I knew they sold some books that I had briefly considered buying at one point in time because they were by a local author, but I put it off for another time. Now was the time!

"This is the worst book review I've EVER read!" I know you are saying to yourself, perhaps with a few muttered obscenities. Yes, it's true, I hate giving away the plot of the book in reviews. But the point is that I went and bought that Tahoe Deathfall and Tahoe Blowup on Saturday December 28th, and decided that, even though it's not really classy, I'd read one of them before I wrapped it and dropped it in the mail. The books have been in the display for awhile, and as my daughter says, I can read a book and you can't even tell after the fact. The condition I placed on myself was that I must read it in a day. Thankfully that wasn't difficult.

I was pleasantly surprised by this book, I liked the characters, I liked the dialogue, I liked what I see as a possible story arc for the series. And it was kind of fantastical in a way, in the sense that talks about areas I've been to and would love to live in but could never afford--it's always fun to read about the excess of others. It was also fantastical in that some of the scenarios were a little unrealistic, but I think that makes books fun, and it was definitely more fun and more believable than some of those Anthony Horowitz books I've read (Alex Rider is such a DRAG!).

I have a 14 year old daughter, and I could recognize some of the mannerisms of the teen character, Jenny, in this story as those that belong to a 14 year old girl. In general, I feel like he chose to make her have a genius IQ to make the story work with a teen, as well as to make the dialogue work without having to "dumb it down". I appreciate he didn't try and write as a teen girl, especially since whenever I read books with children in them, they never sound like my children (for one thing, they don't curse enough, nor quote enough Futurama). I feel like some of the things she knew were not necessarily culturally appropriate, but then my kid likes 40's music and Abba, so you can never tell what someone will be into. No way would my daughter take a boat out into the lake, but we live in Reno and we don't have a boathouse, and from what I can tell, other teens my daughter's age are much more knowledgeable about boating, skiing and such.

It's hard to believe the main character wouldn't have been arrested by the end, but, you know, it's fun, and way more believable than other stories I've read. And, of course, the dog. Who doesn't love a well behaved and huge dog??? I will now probably have to buy some others and continue the series, but since the next one is about forest fires, I'm not too keen to get into that at the moment. Plus, that Louise Erdrich novel really sucks a person in, so I'm onto that now.

[Dick Aichinger · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars

Tahoe Deathfall is the first in a new series for me about Owen McKenna, a private investigator in the Lake Tahoe area. Todd Borg does a good job of describing the expansiveness of the lake and the rugged beauty of the surrounding area. Owen McKenna is a character easy to relate to.

When 14-year-old Jennifer Salazar approaches Tahoe Detective Owen McKenna, she explains that her identical twin sister Melissa died 8 years before on their 6th birthday. Now, at the ripe old age of 14, Jennifer has come to believe more strongly that her sister's death was not the accident that everyone says. Jennifer Salazar is the heir to a massive Salazar inheritance upon reaching maturity. When McKenna investigates, he uncovers a long-buried secret that is still driving a murderer to kill. McKenna is desperate to catch the killer before he strikes again because McKenna believes that Jennifer is next to die...

This was a very enjoyable read and I will have the next book in line to read soon.

[June · Rating 4 out of 5]

The initial book of a current series. This first book was published in 2001. Owen McKenna is a PI living in Lake Tahoe who is tasked in solving a mystery in surrounding the death of a young child, nine years prior. Owen, his girlfriend Street, together with his harlequin Great Dane, Spot; are a great trio. Quick turnaround mystery read. Looking forward to continuing with series.

[Jessica Bronder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Owen McKenna is just starting up his private investigation business at Lake Tahoe when Jennifer Salazar walks in and wants to hire him to figure out who murdered her twin sister, Melissa, nine years prior. Jennifer is 14 years old and Owen doesn’t want any legal trouble but has offered to look into the “accident” for Jennifer.

At first Owen hears from Jennifer’s Gramma that Jennifer’s mother is in a psychiatric ward and that Jennifer has shown similar behavior. Gramma also admits that she thinks Jennifer pushed her sister off the cliff herself. Things don’t seem to add up so Owen decides to keep helping Jennifer. When they find someone lurking in Jennifer’s house when no one is supposed to be there, Owen decides there is a lot more to going on than what is on the surface.

At the same time, Street, Owen’s girlfriend, is a forensic entomologist that has been called in to look at a body that has been found severely decomposed. There is also the missing caretaker, Sam. It’s convenient that he was supposed to take care of Jennifer and now his is missing. There is also the high paid lawyer that has had his last two wives accidentally die and he inherits large amounts of money.

I loved this book. Owen is a strong character and I just love Spot, I wish I had a dog like him. There were great plot twists and a really surprising ending. This was a quick read of 255 pages but it left me wanting more. I will definitely be getting the rest of Todd Borg’s books.

[Laz the Sailor · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really want to give this 4 stars, but it didn't quite hold together well enough. However, I will definitely read the next book in the series, as the potential is there.

A 14 year old girl asks our intrepid hero to investigate the death of her twin sister. With reluctance, he looks into the situation, and acknowledges that there are things that don't add up. There are the requisite minor B&E and spats of mischief, and a pretty wild rescue and escape sequence.

For all that, this story lacked intensity and depth, which may be attributed to this being the first in the series.

But the seeds are planted for an engrossing series. Our hero has quirks (why won't he carry a gun?), a quirky girlfriend, lives in beautiful Lake Tahoe (the scenery was well detailed), and he has a really big dog.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I must say, I find it hard to honestly use a rating system for books - with so many various "types" of books it is really hard to compare. For example, some books are literary brilliance and deserve high marks. Others, not so much, but are purely entertaining and fun to read.

This series by Todd Borg fall in the latter category - so while I find it a bit odd to give a light, entertaining book the same rating as an internationally acclaimed book, it is what it is.

I have read quite a few of this series (with this being the 1st) and enjoy them. They are my go to filler books, in between the more serious reads. I find them well written, easy to read and able to keep my attention. I like the characters and the setting.

[Shawna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok. Again wish we could give half stars, but since I can’t I’m going to be generous (unlike my mother) and figure that it’ll balance out in the end. Some of the writing was a little stiff for me and dialogue was stilted at times. BUT the mystery was great and well designed. Even if you figures things out, there were still surprises (my fave in a paperback mystery). It’s the first of the series and from what I’ve noticed many series writers get better with time, as they develop their characters. So going to definitely check out the next installment.

[Carson Costa · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a Tahoe-area local, I've been wanting to read Todd Borg's mystery series for a long time. Unfortunately, I can't say it was worth the wait.
Deathfall is the first in the series, and therefore has some work to do in order to set up the world and characters for us. But despite what Borg attempts to set up, the story itself doesn't seem to support those claims. We see Detective Owen McKenna in his P.I. office, and we're clearly supposed to get the impression that he's a hard-boiled noir-style detective for the modern era. But as the story unfolds, that's not how the character behaves. He seems almost aimless at times. After being hired to investigate the supposedly-accidental death of a little girl, he reads a newspaper article (which actually contains less information than what the sister already told him), then hikes to the eight-year-old crime scene but decides he can't learn anything there because it's been too long, it's the wrong season, and he doesn't know where they found the body. It feels like Borg wrote himself into a corner, and instead of editing and revising so that Owen asked someone where the body was found ahead of time (thus framing the character as knowledgeable and in control), Borg just shrugged and said "eh, let's just describe the trees instead." Which is only one of the many instances where Borg seems to forget he's writing a murder mystery, and instead devolves into Tahoe-specific trivia that's largely unrelated to the story.
Which brings me to the absolutely wild phrasing throughout the book. In the above-mentioned scene, Owen "stuck my nose in the bark of one and inhaled. It had a strong and delicious butterscotch aroma which meant Jeffery Pine" (p.31). As a local, I can say I have never once stuck my nose in the bark of a tree in order to smell it. Just standing next to them you're surrounded by the smell, and the bark is usually inhabited by spiders, beetles, ants, and so on. You wouldn't want to stick your face in it, and you wouldn't need to. Especially when you're a local, and therefore used to such novelties as the smell of pine trees, and you're actually on a rather serious errand to go see the scene of the murder you've just been asked to investigate. This is just one example, but the book is rampant with them. One that threw me right off the bat was the description of a six-year-old falling to her death with "natural athletic grace" (p.13). How is falling athletic? The book got more cringe-worthy when the 14-year-old that hired Owen to look into her sister's death had been accepted into Caltech, Stanford, Harvard, MIT, and was worth 394 million dollars. I could buy one or the other, but asking me to buy both strains my suspension of disbelief and feels forced. Particularly since the girl's abnormal intelligence really didn't come into play except to justify why Owen was taking her seriously, which could have been just as easily achieved by emphasizing her fear. Owen, as a practiced investigator, could see that her fear was real, and as a hero could decide to assuage it by investigating even if he didn't personally believe there was anything to it. Instead, Borg cops out and gives us an unrelatable and unbelievable victim, and then makes frequent references throughout the book to how inappropriate it is for a grown man to be talking to this 14-year-old, despite it being in a wholly professional capacity and nothing else in the book even hinting at anything untoward. As previously mentioned: cringey. And not in a good way.
But despite the awkward writing, inept detective, and unrelatable characters, I did push on and found some things that I liked. Street is a great character. Frankly, I think it would have been interesting to make her into an accidental detective, stumbling into investigation by uncovering a clue in her work. She's not just a scientist, but a forensic entomologist, which is an uncommon specialty for any fictional character, let alone a women. She's independent and smart, with tongue-in-cheek humor. I wish she had more agency in the story, but her presence certainly helped endear me to Owen. There was also a stretch of the story where suddenly the action picked up and it got a lot more interesting. We went from scene after scene where Owen essentially didn't learn anything to suddenly making lots of out-of-left-field discoveries in outlandish situations. It felt more like a finale book, rather than a character's debut in that sense. Owen Mckenna is supposedly a small-town P.I., so dropping him into James-Bond-style intrigue right off the bat felt like a stretch.
The ending, I thought, was unsatisfying. It was the kind of thing writers come up with when they're trying a little too hard to be original. Definitely an eyebrow-raiser, but it didn't quite sit right with me... like the ending hadn't been decided until Borg was half-finished writing the book.
Honestly, I've read worse books. There were some good moments, and the characters grew on me as I went. I felt the tension at the end. But obviously I had a lot of complaints. I'm interested in reading Borg's most recent release, Tahoe Speed, to see how his writing has developed over the last two decades and 20+ books, because I think a lot of my complaints stem from common newbie-writer mistakes. It's also possible that this book in particular had a lot of issues in development or saw a lot of inconsistent rewrites due to an overzealous editor. I'm not writing Borg off just yet, but I wouldn't recommend Tahoe Deathfall.

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first book in the Owen McKenna series. I read the 20th book, Tahoe Moon, before this one, and actually enjoyed that one more. What I liked about this book: the characters, the detailed description of the locations and the ending of this mystery. I do look forward to reading the other books in this series.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

looks like I found a new series to read, because couldn't put it down when I started it.can't wait to read the next one.

[Joanie Bassler · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up my first Borg book at a diner. It was sitting in a cardboard stand with 4 or more of his other books. I picked one up and read the back cover, a middle page, and page one. I liked Borg's writing. The story appealed to me, so I bought it. So glad I did. Not only did I enjoy it, my 9 year old niece (a reluctant reader) was interested in reading it. There was a dead girl in it and some sexual references, but nothing overtly gory or implicitly sexy to restrict it to over 15s. So when I was done, I gave it to her to read. She finished it, enjoyed it, and asked for the 2nd one.

I enjoyed this mystery. I didn't have it solved 1/2 way through so that's a big plus. In fact I didn't know who did it until it was revealed, so it was impressive. There was a feel about the main character - like he was a cross between the old Philip Marlowe, Cormoran Strike, and Magnum PI.

For entertainment solid 5, but due to my uncertainty with the killers motives -- the author skillfully set the whole thing up and it was believable within the story. The killer's motives and reasons were clear, but not sure I'd believe them.

I live in the UK, so I haven't gotten the next book yet. But I sent the 2nd book to my niece, who read it and enjoyed it too. She's supposed to give it to me next time I visit, but with Covid...

[Ken Finlay · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Tahoe Deathfall” is an old-fashioned P.I. novel with a plot that Chandler and Hammett would have been quite happy to use.
Ex-cop Owen McKenna is new to the P.I. business and among his first clients is Jennifer Salazar, 14, who stands to inherit a multi-million dollar fortune when she turns 18.
She wants him to investigate the death of her identical twin sister, Melissa, some eight years before.
Melissa was found at the base of scree on Maggie's Peak and, while there were no signs of assault Jennifer is convinced that she was murdered.
But, as a minor, she cannot enter into a contract and Owen, in an inexplicable act of generosity, offers to investigate for free! He should have thought first as it turns out to be expensive work.
The plot revolves around the Salazar family and sometimes stretches credulity as loose connections turn out to be dead certs.
There's also a lot of serendipity involved, particularly in the set-piece action scenes.
Character development is largely ignored. For example Street Casey (Owen's girlfriend) is as much as enigma in the end as she was at the beginning.
That said it is a very readable and solid whodunnit
4 Stars.

[Kelli Johnson]

I picked up this book at a festival in Genoa, NV where I used to live. What fun this was to read! Of course I loved that the author was describing familiar places and landmarks which made me miss the wonderful area of Tahoe and the Carson Valley. However, I really enjoyed the story and the writing of the author. Todd wrote a fast-paced, high energy twist and turn story that kept the reader interested. I enjoyed all of his characters even though a few didn't always ring true to me (not sure how a 14 year old with no friends and family became an expert boat driver?) and I didn't really buy into the motive of the killer. I know the author wanted a big surprise finish while keeping the reader guessing....but I like the killer to have a strong story and motive at the end and this ending was a bit disappointing for me.

The book was a quick read....and I will definitely read more of the author's mystery thrillers!

[Chrissi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! I live in Carson City, NV and have seen these books around town for sale and was really curious about stories that are based out of our local area. I finally took the plunge and was rewarded with a story that held my attention and was not predictable at all. I read a lot and tire of books that I can tell "who dun it" by the second chapter. I especially liked the part about flying the little plane up from LV. I have driven that route and am familiar with the terrain. It was quite exhilarating to read the words and picture that flight. It was thrilling!

I also would like to speak about the editing and proofreading of this book. Your crew is topnotch! There were no glaring errors that I found, as I usually do when reading a book which is quite distracting and sometimes will ruin the read for me.

Thank you Mr. Borg! I am now on to the next in the series.

[Raucous · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was recommended to me because I'd recently been at Lake Tahoe near one of the locations mentioned in the book. Plus it has a neat dog in it. I liked both the setting and most of the characters in the book (including the dog). I had a problem with the lead though. "Reckless" doesn't do justice to his behavior. It's hard to suspend belief when I lose track of just how many times he should have died in the book. It's difficult to see how he survived this one - much all the sequels. It's not him that I worry about though. His behavior is dangerous to the people around him. Run away Street - and take Spot with you! Jennifer, if you're as smart as everyone says you are you'll get the restraining order that your gramma apparently failed to take out. And Diamond... If you want to keep your job...

[Carol Pennington · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jennifer is a 14 year old heiress who lives with her paternal grandmother. Nine years ago, Jennifer lost her twin sister to what was determined to be a hiking accident. Jennifer is not convinced it was an accident. She tries to hire Owen McKenna, a local PI, to investigate. Because of her age, Owen is reluctant. However when he is convinced Jennifer’s life might be in danger, he pursues the investigation.

If you enjoy a good mystery, this book is for you. It is full of adventure and kept me guessing. I also enjoyed the setting of the story. I also appreciated the relative clean nature of the book. There were only a few curse words and there were no graphical scenes. There was, however, a fair amount of violence. I would recommend this book to anyone who can tolerate a moderate amount of violence in a good mystery.