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Detective Nathan Parker #3
Served Cold
When a cargo trailer packed with dead undocumented migrants is found abandoned in a freeway rest stop, Detective Nathan Parker soon discovers the dead wore identical clothing, were the same age, and weren’t destined for the fields. Parker uncovers a diabolical connection between the migrants and a high-tech computer firm handling sensitive government information—information that could jeopardize the lives of thousands if it got into the wrong hands. Hands like the gang assassin who killed Parker’s partner, who surfaces drawing them together for a final showdown. Parker promised his partner revenge as he bled out in Parker’s arms—revenge is a dish best served cold.
366 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 16, 2024
8 people are currently reading
46 people want to read
About the author
James L'Etoile
20 books352 followersJames L’Etoile uses his twenty-nine years behind bars as an influence in his novels, short stories, and screenplays. He is a former associate warden in a maximum-security prison, a hostage negotiator, facility captain, and director of California’s state parole system. He is a nationally recognized expert witness on prison and jail operations. He is a two-time Silver Falchion Award nominee and shortlisted for the Bill Crider Award for short fiction. His published novels include: Dead Drop( Lefty Award nominee), Black Label (Silver Falchion winner), At What Cost, Bury the Past, and Little River -The Other Side of Paradise. You can find out more at www.jamesletoile.com
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
March 4, 2025
More than 20 young men were found abandoned in a container at a rest stop, all but one of them dead. This sounds like a story from the headlines, but these men weren't poor immigrants. Nathan Parker's investigation leads him to government corruption, cartel in-fighting, and a very personal cold case. I enjoyed the interesting characters and all the surprises along the way. This is a good one.
July 24, 2024
Parker returns to solve a puzzling mass homicide with a target on his back and vengeance in his heart.
Served Cold is the third novel in author James L’Etoile’s exciting mystery series featuring Maricopa County Sheriff’s Department Detective Nathan Parker, but first-time readers should have no trouble settling in for one of the best police procedural series going. With its well-drawn characters, tragic deaths, and multiple intriguing side storylines, this story is absorbing and very satisfying.
Parker is tasked with solving the shocking crime when the bodies of over two dozen young Hispanic men are discovered in a cargo container abandoned at a highway comfort stop. Due to the nature of the crime and the number of victims, law enforcement brass want to ensure the investigation into their deaths is flawless, generates positive optics to the community, and quickly provides the answers needed. It is a complicated case from the very start, with all identification scrubbed from the trailer and container and no IDs on any of the victims. An interesting curveball is the added complexity of investigating while under the oversight of a federal court-appointed monitor to comply with the county’s Melendres order. However, the extra scrutiny does serve to get Deputy Linda Hunt from the Court Implementation Unit (and Parker’s girlfriend) assigned to the investigating team. Readers see Parker’s softer side working with both Linda and his foster son, Miguel, who assists where he can. The tension immediately ramps up when all three are targeted by a cartel leader seeking revenge against Parker for their past run-ins. However, Parker also wants vengeance of the ultimate kind for the murder of his former partner, so there is some soul-searching to reconcile his conflicts.The author’s writing is storytelling at its best. His descriptions put me right in the middle of the story, and his characters’ interactions and dialogue were authentic and natural. I really felt like I knew the main characters personally. The story unfolds as a police procedural, with riveting twists in the plot beginning immediately, ensuring I was not about to put this book down until I was done.
I recommend SERVED COLD to mystery readers who enjoy police procedurals, thrillers, stories featuring immigrants, professional investigators or Arizona settings.I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving an Advanced Review Copy from the author through Partners in Crime Virtual Book Tours.
July 22, 2024
4.5 rounded up to 5
It's no secret, I'm a huge fan of police procedurals, and this was a great one. This is the 3rd book in the author's Detective Nathan Parker series but can be read as a standalone, which I did. This is, however, my 2nd book by this author, and I can say he does not disappoint! His crime thrillers are spot on! I'm definitely a fan!
Detective Nathan Parker is called in to investigate an abandoned cargo trailer at a highway rest stop. What's found in the trailer is truly disturbing. It's full of dead undocumented migrants. They're all around the same age, dressed the same, and have no signs of hard labor. What were they doing in the country? How did they end up dead in the back of the trailer?
The investigation is one wild ride! There's sensitive information that could jeopardize thousands of lives. Mexican drug cartels, a high-tech computer company, and the federal government are all involved. Parker is also looking to avenge his partner's death. I was hooked from the very first page. It was well written, fast-paced, and had tons of action. The mystery and suspense kept me turning pages. I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it!
It's no secret, I'm a huge fan of police procedurals, and this was a great one. This is the 3rd book in the author's Detective Nathan Parker series but can be read as a standalone, which I did. This is, however, my 2nd book by this author, and I can say he does not disappoint! His crime thrillers are spot on! I'm definitely a fan!
Detective Nathan Parker is called in to investigate an abandoned cargo trailer at a highway rest stop. What's found in the trailer is truly disturbing. It's full of dead undocumented migrants. They're all around the same age, dressed the same, and have no signs of hard labor. What were they doing in the country? How did they end up dead in the back of the trailer?
The investigation is one wild ride! There's sensitive information that could jeopardize thousands of lives. Mexican drug cartels, a high-tech computer company, and the federal government are all involved. Parker is also looking to avenge his partner's death. I was hooked from the very first page. It was well written, fast-paced, and had tons of action. The mystery and suspense kept me turning pages. I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it!
July 24, 2024
Wow, what an opening to this book! I mean finding that in a cargo container would make me want to read the rest of the book and find out what happened to them. The MC in our story is Nathan Parker, who is a detective in charge of the crime scene at the cargo container. There are many victims and he doesn’t know what to do with his crime scene so he calls in reinforcements. I love a mystery that starts out as a complete mystery of who the victims are and who did it. All the victims are dressed the same and there may be a survivor at the scene.
The story is engaging to fans of mystery books and stories where you need to figure out who the killer or killers are. This was a non-stop mystery solving extravaganza! Parker is very relatable as a main character to read about. There is also a character named Billie who is helping along with the case and finds out what happens to the victims. She also helps with getting people out of sticky situations. I love that ending, “Everyone’s entitled to a secret or two.” That is a great message and a great ending! I can not wait for the next one!
The story is engaging to fans of mystery books and stories where you need to figure out who the killer or killers are. This was a non-stop mystery solving extravaganza! Parker is very relatable as a main character to read about. There is also a character named Billie who is helping along with the case and finds out what happens to the victims. She also helps with getting people out of sticky situations. I love that ending, “Everyone’s entitled to a secret or two.” That is a great message and a great ending! I can not wait for the next one!
July 31, 2024
Author James L'Etoile introduced readers to Detective Sergeant Nathan Parker with the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office in Arizona in Dead Drop. He and his partner, Josh McMillan, were assigned to patrol a road near the United States - Mexico border with the goal of interrupting the flow of undocumented migrants who were accessing it to bypass Immigration and Customs Enforcement checkpoints. McMillan was brutally murdered by Esteban Castaneda, a vicious leader in the Los Muertos gang. Nathan blames himself, convinced that had he responded faster to McMillan's urgent radio call, he might have saved his partner. And apprehended Castaneda who, five years later, remains at large.
Once again. L’Etoile immediately immerses readers in a fast-paced thriller replete with shocking plot twists. The book opens with a young State Trooper who has been banished by his superiors to the graveyard shift to hopefully instill an attitude adjustment. He pulls his vehicle off the desolate highway to patrol a rest stop. A few truckers have stopped there for the night. Curiously, though, he discovers an unmarked cargo container on a flatbed trailer with no license plate. It appears to be leaking air conditioner refrigerant. There is no tractor or driver in the vicinity, but one of the truck drivers reports having observed a tractor speeding out of the rest stop several hours earlier. When the Trooper opens the door of the container, he finds it fully packed with the bodies of young men – twenty-eight in all -- with their “arms, legs, heads all intertwined like a Hieronymus Bosch portrait of the damned.”
Nathan responds to the scene and immediately commences an investigation into who the men were, how they came to be in the cargo container, how they died, and who is responsible for their demise. Assigned to lead the inquiry, he immediately begins searching for a connection between the victims.
Nathan and his colleagues have extensive experience dealing with groups crossing the border, often with the promised assistance of unscrupulous coyotes who extract compensation through threats and violence. Often, those arrangements end tragically, dreams of a better life in America turned into wondering and grief for surviving family members back home. But the decedents were clearly not on their way to start working in the agriculture industry. Each of the men was wearing a long-sleeved white dress shirt, dark slacks, and sneakers or leather loafers. None of them bear the callouses or scars earned by performing hard physical labor. The medical examiner assesses the victims and preliminarily opines that they all died of asphyxiation. Miraculously, one young man is still alive, but unconscious and in critical condition. He is rushed to the hospital as authorities attempt to ascertain his identity, along with the names of the deceased. A Mexico City newspaper reported that two mothers recently voiced concerns about their sons. The young men left home, allegedly to begin new jobs with a tech company in America. But both of them have vanished.
Irascible, enigmatic Billie Carson, introduced in Dead Drop, saw her fortunes change dramatically by the conclusion Devil Within, the second book in the series. When readers met Billie, she was living in a dilapidated travel trailer, surviving by scouring the desert for lost and abandoned items she sold to recycling yards. Billie is a former coyote with knowledge about the routes across the border, as well as the people who control them and prey on those desperate to make their way to the United States to forge better lives for themselves and their families. She lived off the radar after testifying against a cartel operating a human trafficking ring. Even though she is now a wealthy woman, her lifestyle has not changed much. She uses her money to keep the Immigrant Coalition running, with the assistance of Miguel, Nathan’s foster son. She has become a beloved member of their family.
Because the federal court monitors the interactions between the Sheriff’s Office and the Hispanic community, a liaison is assigned to the investigation. Nathan initially insists that is not necessary, but ceases protesting when he learns that Deputy Linda Hunt, with whom he is, unbeknownst to his superiors, in a healthy romantic relationship, will be serving in that capacity.
As the investigation proceeds, it quickly becomes apparent that Esteban Castaneda, the man who murdered Nathan’s partner, is back. Someone is tagging a series of crime scenes and Nathan deduces that the messages are personal – they are telling him that he is a marked man. And he is not the only one in danger. Clearly, Castaneda and Los Muertos were somehow involved in the deaths of the young men found in the cargo container, all of whom were exposed to radiation and had high levels of carbon monoxide in their systems. (Thus, Nathan and other personnel who entered the container were also exposed. But that cannot slow down their investigation.) Billie assists Nathan by visiting West Valley Machine Shop which figured in Devil Within, too. She watches the employees packing boxes, but not with auto parts. And all the cartons bore the international symbol for radiation and the words “Caution, Medical Waste” in Ukrainian. The mystery surrounding the decedents deepens. Is Los Muertos shipping radioactive material? If so, what kind and where is it headed? Or is it a ruse, designed to distract observers and keep them from learning what nefarious activity they are actually engaged in?
Once again, L’Etoile has crafted a fast-paced, inventive mystery replete with unpredictable developments. The riveting story succeeds because it is deftly plotted and intricately designed, and delivers shocking twists that compel readers to keep reading. L’Etoile throws numerous obstacles in Nathan’s path, including dirty cops, bureaucrats, and immunity deals over which Nathan has no control, but he is undeterred. He also must untangle a web of machinations, double-crosses, and power plays by cartel leaders.
Each lead character is fully developed and empathetic. Nathan has carried the guilt he feels about his partner’s death for five full years. It derailed his life and career for a time. L’Etoile notes that when he launched the series, Nathan “obsessed over getting justice and revenge on Castaneda.” He permitted it to “cloud his judgement and it nearly cost him his life.” Now Castaneda is back, and Nathan is just as determined that he will not evade justice, but with the perspective that time and experience have brought him, Nathan knows that revenge “won’t come without a cost.” Is Nathan willing to pay it? “It’s about making sure Castaneda doesn’t make another McMillan. He’s brought terror and violence down on everyone and it’s time for it to end,” Nathan declares. “Revenge is best served cold.” L’Etoile provides a satisfying resolution to Nathan’s saga after his circuitous route to finally squaring off against his nemesis.
Once again, Billie is enmeshed in the action and at the heart of the tale. She has become a beloved character to fans of the series. L’Etoile relates, “A woman stopped me once and pointed her finger at me, telling me, ‘You better not hurt Billie.’” In Served Cold, Billie comes under suspicion. Billie is part of the family Nathan has forged with Miguel and, now, Linda and her foster son, Leon. Was Nathan wrong to trust her? L’Etoile discloses more details about Billie’s past, some of which are jaw-dropping. Can her relationship with Nathan survive once the truth is revealed?
Even though L’Etoile shepherds several of the storylines in the three books to logical conclusions, many issues remain unresolved. Presumably, they will be addressed in the three additional installments in the series that he has planned. “Everyone’s entitled to a secret or two.” And whether he complies with that fan’s demand that he keep Billie safe from harm remains to be seen.
Thanks to the author for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book.
Once again. L’Etoile immediately immerses readers in a fast-paced thriller replete with shocking plot twists. The book opens with a young State Trooper who has been banished by his superiors to the graveyard shift to hopefully instill an attitude adjustment. He pulls his vehicle off the desolate highway to patrol a rest stop. A few truckers have stopped there for the night. Curiously, though, he discovers an unmarked cargo container on a flatbed trailer with no license plate. It appears to be leaking air conditioner refrigerant. There is no tractor or driver in the vicinity, but one of the truck drivers reports having observed a tractor speeding out of the rest stop several hours earlier. When the Trooper opens the door of the container, he finds it fully packed with the bodies of young men – twenty-eight in all -- with their “arms, legs, heads all intertwined like a Hieronymus Bosch portrait of the damned.”
Nathan responds to the scene and immediately commences an investigation into who the men were, how they came to be in the cargo container, how they died, and who is responsible for their demise. Assigned to lead the inquiry, he immediately begins searching for a connection between the victims.
Nathan and his colleagues have extensive experience dealing with groups crossing the border, often with the promised assistance of unscrupulous coyotes who extract compensation through threats and violence. Often, those arrangements end tragically, dreams of a better life in America turned into wondering and grief for surviving family members back home. But the decedents were clearly not on their way to start working in the agriculture industry. Each of the men was wearing a long-sleeved white dress shirt, dark slacks, and sneakers or leather loafers. None of them bear the callouses or scars earned by performing hard physical labor. The medical examiner assesses the victims and preliminarily opines that they all died of asphyxiation. Miraculously, one young man is still alive, but unconscious and in critical condition. He is rushed to the hospital as authorities attempt to ascertain his identity, along with the names of the deceased. A Mexico City newspaper reported that two mothers recently voiced concerns about their sons. The young men left home, allegedly to begin new jobs with a tech company in America. But both of them have vanished.
Irascible, enigmatic Billie Carson, introduced in Dead Drop, saw her fortunes change dramatically by the conclusion Devil Within, the second book in the series. When readers met Billie, she was living in a dilapidated travel trailer, surviving by scouring the desert for lost and abandoned items she sold to recycling yards. Billie is a former coyote with knowledge about the routes across the border, as well as the people who control them and prey on those desperate to make their way to the United States to forge better lives for themselves and their families. She lived off the radar after testifying against a cartel operating a human trafficking ring. Even though she is now a wealthy woman, her lifestyle has not changed much. She uses her money to keep the Immigrant Coalition running, with the assistance of Miguel, Nathan’s foster son. She has become a beloved member of their family.
Because the federal court monitors the interactions between the Sheriff’s Office and the Hispanic community, a liaison is assigned to the investigation. Nathan initially insists that is not necessary, but ceases protesting when he learns that Deputy Linda Hunt, with whom he is, unbeknownst to his superiors, in a healthy romantic relationship, will be serving in that capacity.
As the investigation proceeds, it quickly becomes apparent that Esteban Castaneda, the man who murdered Nathan’s partner, is back. Someone is tagging a series of crime scenes and Nathan deduces that the messages are personal – they are telling him that he is a marked man. And he is not the only one in danger. Clearly, Castaneda and Los Muertos were somehow involved in the deaths of the young men found in the cargo container, all of whom were exposed to radiation and had high levels of carbon monoxide in their systems. (Thus, Nathan and other personnel who entered the container were also exposed. But that cannot slow down their investigation.) Billie assists Nathan by visiting West Valley Machine Shop which figured in Devil Within, too. She watches the employees packing boxes, but not with auto parts. And all the cartons bore the international symbol for radiation and the words “Caution, Medical Waste” in Ukrainian. The mystery surrounding the decedents deepens. Is Los Muertos shipping radioactive material? If so, what kind and where is it headed? Or is it a ruse, designed to distract observers and keep them from learning what nefarious activity they are actually engaged in?
Once again, L’Etoile has crafted a fast-paced, inventive mystery replete with unpredictable developments. The riveting story succeeds because it is deftly plotted and intricately designed, and delivers shocking twists that compel readers to keep reading. L’Etoile throws numerous obstacles in Nathan’s path, including dirty cops, bureaucrats, and immunity deals over which Nathan has no control, but he is undeterred. He also must untangle a web of machinations, double-crosses, and power plays by cartel leaders.
Each lead character is fully developed and empathetic. Nathan has carried the guilt he feels about his partner’s death for five full years. It derailed his life and career for a time. L’Etoile notes that when he launched the series, Nathan “obsessed over getting justice and revenge on Castaneda.” He permitted it to “cloud his judgement and it nearly cost him his life.” Now Castaneda is back, and Nathan is just as determined that he will not evade justice, but with the perspective that time and experience have brought him, Nathan knows that revenge “won’t come without a cost.” Is Nathan willing to pay it? “It’s about making sure Castaneda doesn’t make another McMillan. He’s brought terror and violence down on everyone and it’s time for it to end,” Nathan declares. “Revenge is best served cold.” L’Etoile provides a satisfying resolution to Nathan’s saga after his circuitous route to finally squaring off against his nemesis.
Once again, Billie is enmeshed in the action and at the heart of the tale. She has become a beloved character to fans of the series. L’Etoile relates, “A woman stopped me once and pointed her finger at me, telling me, ‘You better not hurt Billie.’” In Served Cold, Billie comes under suspicion. Billie is part of the family Nathan has forged with Miguel and, now, Linda and her foster son, Leon. Was Nathan wrong to trust her? L’Etoile discloses more details about Billie’s past, some of which are jaw-dropping. Can her relationship with Nathan survive once the truth is revealed?
Even though L’Etoile shepherds several of the storylines in the three books to logical conclusions, many issues remain unresolved. Presumably, they will be addressed in the three additional installments in the series that he has planned. “Everyone’s entitled to a secret or two.” And whether he complies with that fan’s demand that he keep Billie safe from harm remains to be seen.
Thanks to the author for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book.
July 21, 2024
I enjoyed this book from the first page to the last. It is part of a series but can be read as a standalone. Detective Nathan Parker gets called to a truck stop to investigate a trailer full of deceased undocumented immigrants. At first it looks like a standard case of bringing immigrants into the US but soon Nathan finds it there is a lot more to this case.
This book is a mix of police procedural with multiple government agencies, Mexican cartels, secrets, and revenge. As I said the book can be read as a standalone but you will want to read the rest of the series after reading this book. The author brings the characters to life and I want to read more about them. This is not a gritty book, which I enjoyed. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a good crime novel with several smaller plots mixing with the main plot.
This book is a mix of police procedural with multiple government agencies, Mexican cartels, secrets, and revenge. As I said the book can be read as a standalone but you will want to read the rest of the series after reading this book. The author brings the characters to life and I want to read more about them. This is not a gritty book, which I enjoyed. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a good crime novel with several smaller plots mixing with the main plot.
February 3, 2025
A patrol officer is just hoping for a break from his boring shift when he comes across an abandoned big rig trailer. I think he would have preferred boredom. What he discovers is over twenty bodies in the sweltering container.
Nathan Parker and his team are called in to solve the mystery of who these men were and why they were left to die on this lonely stretch of highway. What follows is an impossible-to-put-down tale of human trafficking, gangs and betrayal. The mystery is layered with each chapter bring a new twist. The real story of of the lives of the people on both sides of the law who will pull you in.
This is one of my favorite books of 2024. Can't wait for the next one.
Nathan Parker and his team are called in to solve the mystery of who these men were and why they were left to die on this lonely stretch of highway. What follows is an impossible-to-put-down tale of human trafficking, gangs and betrayal. The mystery is layered with each chapter bring a new twist. The real story of of the lives of the people on both sides of the law who will pull you in.
This is one of my favorite books of 2024. Can't wait for the next one.
May 9, 2025
Difficult but dynamic.
July 19, 2024
Served Cold is written by James L'Etoile. I first got to "meet" this author when he participated in a reader q&a event via zoom. I was so excited to be a part of the tour. This is book three in the Detective Nathan Parker series. I have not read the series, but I had no issues following along. This book drew me in within the first few pages and I could not read fast enough. I had to know what was happening next.
Detective Nathan Parker is on a case where a trailer full of dead undocumented migrants are found. There are some weird connections that Nathan finds. They are all in identical clothing and are connected with a compute firm that handles sensitive government information. What could have lured them into this situation? Why did the driver just abandon them on the side of the road?
The deeper Parker digs, the more then meets the eye. However, Parker is determined to find out who is behind this even if the case gets turned over to Homeland Security, Parker is not so ready to let it go. He is also bent on seeking revenge The author takes us on an adventure that will send you on twists and turns and will leave you on the edge of your seat.
The book is well written. The characters are well developed. There is so much action and suspense. Thank you to the author, publisher and Partners in Crime Tours for allowing me to read a copy of this book, all thoughts are my own.
Detective Nathan Parker is on a case where a trailer full of dead undocumented migrants are found. There are some weird connections that Nathan finds. They are all in identical clothing and are connected with a compute firm that handles sensitive government information. What could have lured them into this situation? Why did the driver just abandon them on the side of the road?
The deeper Parker digs, the more then meets the eye. However, Parker is determined to find out who is behind this even if the case gets turned over to Homeland Security, Parker is not so ready to let it go. He is also bent on seeking revenge The author takes us on an adventure that will send you on twists and turns and will leave you on the edge of your seat.
The book is well written. The characters are well developed. There is so much action and suspense. Thank you to the author, publisher and Partners in Crime Tours for allowing me to read a copy of this book, all thoughts are my own.
August 1, 2024
Detective Nathan Parker returns for his third adventure when an abandoned cargo trailer of dead undocumented migrants is discovered, sparking an intense investigation.
Author James L’Etoile uses Served Cold as a way to tie the past and present together. Time hasn’t lessened Nathan’s burning determination to seek revenge against Los Muertos for his partner’s murder.
This investigation stands out because the victims are all wearing similar uniforms. Nathan and his team uncover clues that lead to all sorts of illegal activities, including gun running and technological threats.
Not only does Nathan have to stay out of the crosshairs, but he also faces an unexpected roadblock when the leader of Los Muertos comes under federal protection.
Everything Nathan stands for tells him he owes it to his partner’s memory to seek justice. However, can he dish out revenge without losing himself in the process?
With a solid set of compelling characters, the series continues to provide insight into the migrant crisis and the importance of people like Nathan who uphold the law.
As a police procedural, Served Cold packs all the right elements to deliver an explosive installment to a successful series. ~ Amy for Novels Alive
Author James L’Etoile uses Served Cold as a way to tie the past and present together. Time hasn’t lessened Nathan’s burning determination to seek revenge against Los Muertos for his partner’s murder.
This investigation stands out because the victims are all wearing similar uniforms. Nathan and his team uncover clues that lead to all sorts of illegal activities, including gun running and technological threats.
Not only does Nathan have to stay out of the crosshairs, but he also faces an unexpected roadblock when the leader of Los Muertos comes under federal protection.
Everything Nathan stands for tells him he owes it to his partner’s memory to seek justice. However, can he dish out revenge without losing himself in the process?
With a solid set of compelling characters, the series continues to provide insight into the migrant crisis and the importance of people like Nathan who uphold the law.
As a police procedural, Served Cold packs all the right elements to deliver an explosive installment to a successful series. ~ Amy for Novels Alive
March 5, 2025
I love it when a book entertains and informs. I learned so much about cartels from this author (who for many years worked in a penitentiary and has undoubtably met every kind of criminal) while enjoying the characters and their often-untenable situations.
The premise is shocking but also has a ripped-from-the-headlines vibe: an abandoned cargo trailer packed with dead undocumented young men discovered at a highway truck stop. Detective Nathan Parker is tasked with solving the mystery. Who were these men? And why were they dressed in identical business attire?
Parker relies on a cast of coworkers, friends, and family members to help him get to the heart of this unusual situation, and I'm right there with him--enjoying the exchanges, the danger, and ultimately, the justice. Bravo! If you enjoy police procedurals with up-to-the-second real-world appeal, you'll love this one.
The premise is shocking but also has a ripped-from-the-headlines vibe: an abandoned cargo trailer packed with dead undocumented young men discovered at a highway truck stop. Detective Nathan Parker is tasked with solving the mystery. Who were these men? And why were they dressed in identical business attire?
Parker relies on a cast of coworkers, friends, and family members to help him get to the heart of this unusual situation, and I'm right there with him--enjoying the exchanges, the danger, and ultimately, the justice. Bravo! If you enjoy police procedurals with up-to-the-second real-world appeal, you'll love this one.
September 3, 2024
I've been reading a lot of mysteries lately, and thinking about what makes a good one. For me, that means great characterization, and James L'Etoile's a master at creating characters I care about - in this case, Detective Nathan Parker, his foster son, and a desert rat friend with a past. L'Etoile's twisting plots make for exciting reading - and in this novel, it starts off with the dramatic and gruesome discovery of an abandoned cargo trailer loaded with dead, undocumented migrants. The twist? These poor souls wore identical clothing and were all the same age. The author reaches back to previous novels in this series to bring in characters and plot elements that enrich this one, and develops storylines that I hope will continue for many books in the future.
November 2, 2024
I have enjoyed the Nathan Parker mysteries. He is a flawed character, and very self-aware of that fact. The story is gruesome with no real surprises at the end but it is well written and has a positive ending.
November 13, 2025
This was maybe not edited. At the very least not copy edited. The exposition was bad and characters two dimensional
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews