Alpha: A Mallory Petersen Mystery

by Stephen L. Brayton

How well do we ever know anyone? Even someone we might be falling in love with…

On a rainy October morning, Mallory Petersen, private detective and martial artist, discovers the corpse of her boyfriend, Bobby Furillo, in front of her office in Des Moines, Iowa.

Bucking police authority and continually attacked by unknown adversaries, Mallory discovers Bobby’s devastating secrets. Each new revelation puts Mallory in deeper peril from powerful and dangerous people, but she won’t stop until she learns the truth.

372 pages, Paperback

Published July 24, 2023

Reviews

[Al · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting story and is structured in an interesting way. The “interesting way” it is structured is that it switches back and forth between two times, one that it calls “now” and the other “then.” We start the story in the “now” time with Mallory, our protagonist who is a private investigator and martial arts instructor, getting asked a question by Lawrence, Mallory’s current boyfriend. Lawrence is a police officer from a city a couple hours away from where Mallory lives and is spending a weekend at her place. The question Lawrence asks is “tell me a story about one of your toughest cases.” Mallory does and oh, what a story it is. The story switches to “then” (some period in the past when this case was happening) and Mallory begins to tell Lawrence about the case that starts when she discovers the corpse of her then boyfriend in front of her office.

The story goes back and forth between then and now with Lawrence and Mallory getting to know each other better in the “now” while their discussion provides a bit of foreshadowing in a unique way for the “then” part of the story, which is where Mallory tells the full story of what the police and Mallory, who does her own investigation, find while searching for the person responsible for her boyfriend’s death. What Mallory finds is a lot of things she’d have never guessed and a lot more involved than anyone would have anticipated. It’s an intense story, only made more so by Mallory often getting into situations that require her martial arts skills to get through them relatively unscathed.

**Originally written for "Books and Pals" book blog. May have received a free review copy. **

[Heather Barksdale · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Alpha” is book 1 of the Mallory Peterson Mysteries and is reviewed as a standalone novel here. Mallory is a private detective living in Des Moines, Iowa.

Overall, I enjoyed this tale. The story is told through Mallory’s POV in both present and past timelines. The present timeline, “now”, is depicted through Mallory telling about events in her past, “then”, to her police officer boyfriend, Lawrence Cameron, after he asks to hear about “one of her toughest cases”. Some of the present snippets added a lot to Mallory’s character- insight into how she felt and how she got to this place in her life. Find the full blog review at heatherlbarksdale.com

I received a copy of this story in exchange of a fair and honest review.