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Among the Dead
When bodies surface on Lake Erie, their mouths filled with exotic flowers, FBI Agent Cara Ward must return to her home turf and decode the enigmatic clue—and catch a killer before he strikes again.
AMONG THE DEAD (A Cara Ward FBI Suspense Thriller—Book 1) is the first novel in a new series by mystery and suspense author Katie Rush.
The Cara Ward series is a compelling and intense thrill ride starring a gifted but tormented female protagonist. This captivating mystery delivers relentless excitement, nail-biting tension, astonishing twists, and a rapid-fire tempo that ensures you'll be turning pages well past bedtime. Fans of Kendra Elliot, Lisa Regan, and Robert Dugoni are sure to fall in love.
Future books in the series are also available!
AMONG THE DEAD (A Cara Ward FBI Suspense Thriller—Book 1) is the first novel in a new series by mystery and suspense author Katie Rush.
The Cara Ward series is a compelling and intense thrill ride starring a gifted but tormented female protagonist. This captivating mystery delivers relentless excitement, nail-biting tension, astonishing twists, and a rapid-fire tempo that ensures you'll be turning pages well past bedtime. Fans of Kendra Elliot, Lisa Regan, and Robert Dugoni are sure to fall in love.
Future books in the series are also available!
194 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 6, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
January 10, 2025
Where was the editor? (Spoilers)
I got this for free on Barnes and Noble Nook app.
Countless typos and grammar issues. This plot makes no sense, tons of mistakes on who's doing what. Is Cara an agent or detective? The director of the FBI comes to see cases in Toledo Ohio? Cara calls herself or is mentioned as Cara Ward, Cara Sutton, Cara Evans and Cara Marshall. First writing of killer talks about working in Detroit but lives in Buffalo? First 3-4 victims lived around Toledo and then they get a tip for a missing woman in Buffalo NY (4.5 hours away) and they rush there to solve the case? 3/4 way through book is first mention of females having flowers in hand. Cara arrests Harold literally for no probable cause. Terrible all around. There were plenty of other plot failures I didn't mention.
I got this for free on Barnes and Noble Nook app.
Countless typos and grammar issues. This plot makes no sense, tons of mistakes on who's doing what. Is Cara an agent or detective? The director of the FBI comes to see cases in Toledo Ohio? Cara calls herself or is mentioned as Cara Ward, Cara Sutton, Cara Evans and Cara Marshall. First writing of killer talks about working in Detroit but lives in Buffalo? First 3-4 victims lived around Toledo and then they get a tip for a missing woman in Buffalo NY (4.5 hours away) and they rush there to solve the case? 3/4 way through book is first mention of females having flowers in hand. Cara arrests Harold literally for no probable cause. Terrible all around. There were plenty of other plot failures I didn't mention.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 12, 2024
This was awful.
I've never seen a book so riddled with typos, incorrect punctuation, disjointed plot as if the author didn't remember what she wrote a sentence prior, AND characters with names spelled differently nearly every time they appeared on the page (INCLUDING the main character!).
I'm starting to think the same author is writing all of these short suspense thrillers offered for free on Kindle because the abuse of similes, repetition, and formulaic plot/dialogue just about mirrors others I've had to endure. ("Long shadows," "leather creaking," "stark contrast," "determination," and countless other overused cliches.)
All of it combined to form a 194-page book that was 194 pages too long.
I've never seen a book so riddled with typos, incorrect punctuation, disjointed plot as if the author didn't remember what she wrote a sentence prior, AND characters with names spelled differently nearly every time they appeared on the page (INCLUDING the main character!).
I'm starting to think the same author is writing all of these short suspense thrillers offered for free on Kindle because the abuse of similes, repetition, and formulaic plot/dialogue just about mirrors others I've had to endure. ("Long shadows," "leather creaking," "stark contrast," "determination," and countless other overused cliches.)
All of it combined to form a 194-page book that was 194 pages too long.
June 22, 2024
Editing, typos and misspellings take away from this book
As far as I can tell, this book was edited using spellcheck. There are actually so many of them that I focused on keeping count of the errors rather than the number of dead bodies in the story.
As far as I can tell, this book was edited using spellcheck. There are actually so many of them that I focused on keeping count of the errors rather than the number of dead bodies in the story.
May 4, 2026
Don’t waste your time
Cara is an FBI Agent who is called to investigate a murder of a young woman found on the bank of one of the Great Lakes. But no sooner does she get there then another woman goes missing, and another,
and another. Each woman is found with an exotic flower in her mouth. Cara’s immediate response is to start checking where to get these exotic flowers and what symbolism could they portray
The premise of the story is really interesting and informative. But the way this is written is convoluted and puzzling. If this book was edited, which I extremely doubt, it was very poorly done. There are many cases where the author repeated herself, argued with herself, and jumped to conclusions. But at times she even contradicted herself. Case in point,
In the prologue, she starts it early morning with the sun coming up and ends it with the evening sun setting. It would sound logical if she had spent any time at all on the dock. But she was loading her sailboat to go out on Lake Erie alone. There were other times when she did the same thing started one way and ended another.
There was also an annoying amount of adjectives and descriptions that were totally unnecessary. I skimmed most of the book, reading the first of a paragraph and the end, just to get to the end.
Cara is an FBI Agent who is called to investigate a murder of a young woman found on the bank of one of the Great Lakes. But no sooner does she get there then another woman goes missing, and another,
and another. Each woman is found with an exotic flower in her mouth. Cara’s immediate response is to start checking where to get these exotic flowers and what symbolism could they portray
The premise of the story is really interesting and informative. But the way this is written is convoluted and puzzling. If this book was edited, which I extremely doubt, it was very poorly done. There are many cases where the author repeated herself, argued with herself, and jumped to conclusions. But at times she even contradicted herself. Case in point,
In the prologue, she starts it early morning with the sun coming up and ends it with the evening sun setting. It would sound logical if she had spent any time at all on the dock. But she was loading her sailboat to go out on Lake Erie alone. There were other times when she did the same thing started one way and ended another.
There was also an annoying amount of adjectives and descriptions that were totally unnecessary. I skimmed most of the book, reading the first of a paragraph and the end, just to get to the end.
April 17, 2026
The plot for this book is one that deserves better than what it appeared in the e-book that I obtained. There are so many typos that I lost track. Spelling mistakes galore. Characters changing positions in a car mid paragraph from driver to passenger. That doesn’t even begin to discuss the formatting that wandered all over the place, but that could strictly be because of the e-book format.
Sadly, this experience does not give me a lot of incentive to read anything else by this author moving forward.
All that said, the storyline was intriguing and definitely the suspense leading to the apprehension of the killer would normally keep one reading if it wasn’t for the struggle with the issues mentioned above.
Sadly, this experience does not give me a lot of incentive to read anything else by this author moving forward.
All that said, the storyline was intriguing and definitely the suspense leading to the apprehension of the killer would normally keep one reading if it wasn’t for the struggle with the issues mentioned above.
May 10, 2026
Inconsistencies
The story is good but the inconsistencies in editing are annoying. It is like some parts were edited but they weren't checked to see if they caused errors or repeats in the overall text. A prime example is when they are in the botanical garden and Cara calls for backup to the suspect's house. They aren't at his house, they are at his place of work. Near the end of the story, it states twice, just pages apatt, that Cara kneels to place a lily at the tombstone for her mom. I believe it is the exact sentence repeated. These and other inconsistencies often had me looking back at details and then just shaking my head at the errors.
The story is good but the inconsistencies in editing are annoying. It is like some parts were edited but they weren't checked to see if they caused errors or repeats in the overall text. A prime example is when they are in the botanical garden and Cara calls for backup to the suspect's house. They aren't at his house, they are at his place of work. Near the end of the story, it states twice, just pages apatt, that Cara kneels to place a lily at the tombstone for her mom. I believe it is the exact sentence repeated. These and other inconsistencies often had me looking back at details and then just shaking my head at the errors.
May 20, 2026
I listened to this audibly. It was awful. The narrator misspoke words, called people by wrong names, and did a terrible job. The author must have used the word macabre 100 times and that’s not a word you use often. It got comical. I kept guessing g when the next macabre word was coming. If you use a word that isn’t often heard, don’t use it in every chapter! Yuck yuck yuck. I forced myself to finish it.
August 26, 2024
Poorly written
One sentence will say someone walked away but then the dialogue will continue as if they didn't. Someone is a driver and a passenger in a car. The writer will point out how long they have been failing at finding the killer when less than a day has gone by. Long and repetitive sentences.
One sentence will say someone walked away but then the dialogue will continue as if they didn't. Someone is a driver and a passenger in a car. The writer will point out how long they have been failing at finding the killer when less than a day has gone by. Long and repetitive sentences.
June 15, 2024
Typical boiler plate mystery. Different locale, same story of female detective and female victims. Disappointed in the number of typographical errors. Wish authors would do a better job of proof reading
June 24, 2024
Spelling and grammatical errors
There are many spelling and grammatical errors, who edited this book.
I also found all the details about Cara’s thoughts boring, skimmed almost the whole book trying to find the real story, not a gripping story although it started very promising
There are many spelling and grammatical errors, who edited this book.
I also found all the details about Cara’s thoughts boring, skimmed almost the whole book trying to find the real story, not a gripping story although it started very promising
August 27, 2024
There were a lot of misspelled words, and the author seemed to lose her train of thought. She seemed to ramble a lot, and some of it didn't make sense. I definitely would not recommend this book and will not read any more of her books.
Don't waste your time.
Don't waste your time.
October 16, 2024
Good story, but really need a good proof reader. Many incorrect words used and phrases repeated. Cara Ward was given at least 3 different last names in the story. Agents went to locations in the same vehicle, but then left in their own vehicles. Too many inconsitencies.
January 18, 2025
Critical errors
The author and the editor if there was 1 failed in basic storytelling. There were a lot of obvious Contradictions in the story line. The overall story was okay but the repeated errors was very disappointing.
The author and the editor if there was 1 failed in basic storytelling. There were a lot of obvious Contradictions in the story line. The overall story was okay but the repeated errors was very disappointing.
March 30, 2025
Terrible!
This book had more mistakes than any book I've ever read! Typos, calling the main character by different last names more than once, and the timeline was all over the place. Whoever proofread this book should be fired!
This book had more mistakes than any book I've ever read! Typos, calling the main character by different last names more than once, and the timeline was all over the place. Whoever proofread this book should be fired!
July 12, 2025
I really enjoyed the story, but it was a very difficult read due to the number of typos in it. It doesn't appear that there was any proofreading done before it was published. Hopefully the next book will be a little better but I'm not going to even bother.
April 21, 2026
This book was written with some big words I’d never heard of, yet there were so many discrepancies in the story. Mentions Cara being in a car, yet her footsteps were crunching on gravel!! Didn’t follow !! So many mistakes in the flow of the story
April 25, 2026
Story and plot were ok. Tons of consistency issues though. The male character changes between JT and TJ frequently. Narrator is “Vivanne” which I can only assume is AI as there are several words pronounced incorrectly.
May 22, 2026
A well written thriller
Ms. Rush has written a well plotted police procedural. It drags in spots and has trouble finding a closure. Nevertheless it will a good beach read or air flight distraction.
Ms. Rush has written a well plotted police procedural. It drags in spots and has trouble finding a closure. Nevertheless it will a good beach read or air flight distraction.
July 6, 2024
DNF. There were too many typos/incorrect word usage (waist/waste) instances, and the story wasn't compelling enough for me to overlook them, sadly.
Read
August 8, 2024Audio
August 24, 2024
I listened to the free audio version that was available on Kobo. Nothing special with the formulaic characters and plot but I at least avoided the pain of the typos etc that are reported by the Kindle readers.
August 28, 2024
She really needs an editor and/or proofreader!
Hard to read in many places because of typos and inconsistencies
Hard to read in many places because of typos and inconsistencies
September 5, 2024
Good book
FBI agents , police and a serial killer. Leads you on a chase looking for that leaves a different calling card. Read to find out.
FBI agents , police and a serial killer. Leads you on a chase looking for that leaves a different calling card. Read to find out.
October 2, 2024
Not much characterization
November 15, 2024
Dnf- garbage, just couldn't get through it. Not believable at all.
February 11, 2025
Blooming Suspense
This book was an intriguing and suspenseful read. Once you got to reading it was hard to put down. A definite good read.
This book was an intriguing and suspenseful read. Once you got to reading it was hard to put down. A definite good read.
March 26, 2025
Continuity errors including the name of the principal character, need I say more? Digital narration is poorly edited as well.
June 8, 2025
Horrible beginning. Could not read it due to type-os and lame story
December 28, 2025
This book was full of Typos. I feel like the plot kept changing. A whole lot of words but nothing said. I do not recommend this one
April 5, 2026
very generic, i'm seeing a pattern in this novels.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews