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Troubleshooters #20

Jules Cassidy, P.I.

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Troubleshooters Series # 20

Troubleshooters series fan-favorite Jules Cassidy is back!

Starting over is never easy, but when Jules is forced out of the FBI, he has the help of his good friend, former Navy SEAL Sam Starrett, as he takes on his first case as head of the Troubleshooters personal security firm’s brand new Los Angeles office.

Jules’s assignment: Locate a woman named Emily Johnson, the unexpected heir to a Hollywood producer’s massive fortune. The weird twist? The producer’s estranged son is the client who’s hired Jules and Sam to find this mysterious stranger who’ll inherit what should have been his—millions he claims he does not need or want.

Still, the investigation should be simple despite the lack of information about this woman with a very common name. But Jules knows that with Sam’s help, he’ll find her, even if they have to knock on the door of every Emily Johnson in the greater Los Angeles area.

Best of all? This easy case is danger-free.

But as the WTFs surrounding the investigation start piling up rapidly and haphazardly, it soon becomes clear to both Jules and Sam that someone’s gunning for their mysterious and hard-to-find Emily—and for them, as well.

In a novel that’s part mystery, part drama, part comedy and all heart, Brockmann’s long-awaited return to the Troubleshooters world also delivers the story of Jules Cassidy’s first-ever investigation as a seventeen-year-old high school student.

Shortly after his father’s untimely death, Jules and his mother move back to her rural Connecticut hometown, where Jules begins his senior year as the “new kid.” It’s not long before he is immersed in solving a crime—someone is attacking girls at weekend parties. With the help of a new group of friends, Jules is determined to catch and bring the violent perpetrator to justice.

But life doesn’t always go according to plan…

450 pages, ebook

Published December 11, 2025

99 people are currently reading
76 people want to read

About the author

Suzanne Brockmann

252 books3,580 followers
After childhood plans to become the captain of a starship didn’t pan out, Suzanne Brockmann took her fascination with military history, her respect for the men and women who serve, her reverence for diversity, and her love of storytelling, and explored brave new worlds as a bestselling romance author.

Over the past thirty years she has written sixty-three novels, including her award-winning Troubleshooters series about Navy SEAL heroes and the women—and sometimes men—who win their hearts. Her personal favorite is the one where her most popular character, gay FBI agent Jules Cassidy, wins his happily-ever-after and marries the man of his dreams. Called All Through the Night, this mainstream romance novel with a hero and a hero hit the New York Times hardcover fiction bestseller list. In 2007, Suz donated all of her earnings from this book, in perpetuity, to MassEquality, to help win and preserve equal marriage rights in Massachusetts.

In addition to writing books, Suz writes and produces indie movies and TV including the award-winning romantic comedy The Perfect Wedding. Her recent feature, Out of Body, is streaming on Amazon Prime.

In 2018, Suz was given the Nora Roberts Lifetime Achievement Award from the Romance Writers of America. Her latest projects are Blame It on Rio (Tall, Dark & Dangerous # 14), available in print and e-book from Suzanne Brockmann Books, and Marriage of Inconvenience, a six-episode LBGTQ rom-com TV series, streaming on Dekkoo in April 2023.

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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
Profile Image for Crystal.
30 reviews
January 4, 2026
I truly enjoy Suzanne Brockmann's writing style. I loved getting back to Jules and Sam, and getting to see some of Jules' history to understand his drive and empathy. I'm super excited for this offshoot of the series and hope to see plenty more books with these amazing characters. Jay and others deserve their happily ever afters!

On another note, I'm glad to see Suzanne including snippets of the absolute shit show our current government has turned our country into right now. Even though this is fiction, it strongly echoes some of the devastating consequences that have rocked minorities, those in the LBTQIA+ communities and allies, and women more generally regarding reproductive rights. There are so many poor women who have gotten sepsis, died, or even the poor woman's family who was forced to let their mother and wife carry a baby she didn't even know about after she was clinically dead and on life support, because politicians are making health care decisions instead of doctors. We are seeing droves of seasoned employees being pushed out of offices and roles to be replaced by yes men and, scarier yet, people who should not be able to own a firearm because of their bigoted, hate filled rhetoric. We're losing the good employees, the Jules of the FBI and the Cosmo of the military, because they're being forced out or being told to do something reprehensible. We're losing the scientists and subject matter experts to mass firings, DEI bans, or incompetence. Now the president has kidnapped the president of a foreign nation because he wants Venezuela's oil. I get why Jules wouldn't want to bring a little Robin into the world right now.

Yet somehow these books always seem to make me have hope that things can get better. That even if Jules and Sam are fictional, there are good men and women like them pushing back on the hate and violence. I just hope things can get better... and not to where we were before Trump, but to a place where people don't hate each other because of their differences and can learn to embrace the things that make us unique and special. Trump is a cancer on society, yes, but he could only spread his hate if the seeds were already there... we need to do better. We need to follow the examples of Jules and Sam... learn from our mistakes and from our past, have empathy for others and what they're going through, continue to learn and grow instead of stagnating... and ultimately do the right thing for the right reason, not the easy thing, or only doing the right thing if someone is watching...

Sorry for going down a the rabbit trail in my review, but I'm just glad Suzanne is addressing these issues. She runs the gamut well of providing examples and commentary without preaching or being too political, which just may help educate those who aren't as aware of current policy issues and the consequences of decisions made by the current administration. Thanks Suzanne for using your voice and speaking out!
Profile Image for Ronnie.
181 reviews2 followers
December 18, 2025
I enjoyed this very much! a simple case that isn't so simple! Loved the look at Jules in high school and his natural Protector starting to come out. Had times that I laughed out loud and times where I had tears in my eyes. Though this isn't like the rest of the Troubleshooters series, more mystery and much less romance, it's still a wonderful installment. I hope she continues to give us more of this. I can always go back and reread the previous books to get the romances of those featured! Hope Belle and Tom come visit Jules! And Hobbit needs his special someone... soon!
(if you're not familiar with the author's political views from from her newsletters, you might be offended at her references to the state of the FBI and the horrors facing women, especially those who are pregnant. That's fine, go read something else...)
Profile Image for Kaje Harper.
Author 92 books2,732 followers
December 18, 2025
This book is definitely best opened after reading the rest of the Troubleshooters, or at least Hot Target, Force of Nature, and All Through the Night, that gave us Jules and his now-husband Robin. (And maybe read Gone Too Far, that gives us Sam, although it is M/F only - Suzanne Brockmann writes some of my favorite M/F romance.) Unlike the rest of this series, there is very low key romance here (although there is an M/F couple trying for their HEA.) This is mostly established MCs thriller mystery. Don't start with this one if you're new to Troubleshooters (but do check out Hot Target, if this series is unfamiliar to you. A multi-reread for me.)

The pleasure here is in reconnecting with Jules and Robin and Sam (and tangentially with other favorite folk like Cosmo.) We also get an ongoing thread of teen Jules, and while a little idealized, I enjoyed watching a young Jules Cassidy finding his feet and his people in high school, while already becoming a force for good. I liked Hobbit/Kevin a lot.

The mystery has a few twists, but the bad guy is pretty obvious from the start. The fun is in the details and how they get there. I liked that Jules and Sam screwed up a bit at first, and that Jules and Robin are dealing with a powerful emotional issue. I liked for once seeing Jules Cassidy entirely at a loss.

I also personally liked the fact that Jules has quit his beloved FBI because he cannot stomach what it is becoming under this administration. And that the situation was personally devastating for him - as it has been for many real life folks who believe in equality and science. The temptation to inform our stories with today's viciously anti-queer and anti-science politics is a strong one, and a challenge to authorial intensity and judgement. For me, at least, this was done at a very workable level in this book. Being sidelined prejudicially in today's declining FBI is a believable impetus to the change in career for Jules as a lifetime agent. (You have to accept a timeline jump, since we met Jules 20 years ago, but he and the rest have not aged 20 years. It was that, or writing books 15 years out of date. I'm good with this choice.)

I am looking forward to more of Jules and Sam working together. I hope that the reception for this story, and the writing muses, give Suzanne Brockmann inspiration for more Troubleshooters to come.
Profile Image for Turureta.
33 reviews
February 2, 2026
Jules Cassidy and Sam Starrett. The dream team.

I've been here for all the previous Troubleshooters books, and not being a masochist, it is safe to assume I enjoyed them. And I did. There is always the fear with a new book of one of these types of series that there is going to be a repetition of the formula in a bad way, and I am glad to see that this is not the case, Jules Cassidy, PI doesn't let the followers of the series down.

Suzanne Brockmann is a good writer. Her plots are solid, her characters are charismatic, engaging, interesting… but what truly amazes me is how generous she is with the plot lines.
In this kind of literature, it is often the case that a plot is stingily saved for the next book they can sell to us. Each of the books of this series has many lines that could be several books for other authors, but in Brockmann's case, she creates novels that are packed with content, action, lines, temporal jumps, historical lookbacks, and they are very well done, not as a way to show off the talent of the author, (even if it shows) but in order to serve the needs of the book. She can do interesting constructions, and she does them very well.
This one is different from the habitual structure of the series, where there is at least a romantic plot with the main characters (well, we know that some of the romantic plots span through many books, just ask Sam Starrett how many books he had to wait for his happily ever after), finding love while solving a case. Our protagonist is Jules Cassidy, and he already had is falling in love arc. The man we find here is in a stable marriage with the love of his life, but life doesn't end after a wedding, does it?
I've been in love with most of the characters of the Troubleshooters universe for a long time now and the way Brockmann creates them makes me worry about how Max Baghatt is coping with all what is going on, and I was very sad and enraged with and for Jules… when you are so involved with imaginary creations, it means that the creator is good.
This book is good.
I trust Suz, she's earned it.
I believe she is suffering from longcovid, and as a ME longtimer myself, I know that you can't always have all the energy you want to do the things you want or have to do, so even if I want the next book tomorrow, I hope she takes all the time she needs for the next one and after they joy that Jules Cassidy PI has been I will probably have to go back to some of my favourites titles of the series.
Profile Image for Kathryn.
2,076 reviews284 followers
December 23, 2025
It was so good to get back to Jules, Sam and Robin. Plus a few of the rest of the gang, even if it was just by phone! There is quite a bit of skulduggery going on in this book as a few bad characters try to take over what is not theirs. I really liked Emily and Mike or Milt!

I loved the early story about Jules in high school. That was unusual for me because I am not a fan of dual timelines. But we get to see Jules in this setting and how he developed into someone special. I liked how two of the people he knew at this time rode in to help save the situation towards the end.

Jules has left the FBI for obvious reasons in the political situation in the USA. I like how Suzanne Brockton weaves her take on all this and I am fully in agreement with her stance. Although well out of it here in my country. But I don't like despots. Just saying.

I look forward to reading the next book when it is published, I understand this will take time because of long Covid left overs. But I need a reread of the Troubleshooters anyway.
Profile Image for Mary.
516 reviews9 followers
December 18, 2025
I loved this installment of the Troubleshooters series. I wondered what would happen to Jules in this administration. The author handled it in what I thought was a realistic way. So looking forward to reading Sam and Jules setting up a new office. Can't wait to see which retiring Seal members join. High school Jules was fantastic and I hope we get to see more of him.

Suzanne Brockmann used Kickstarter to sell this book and Bookfunnel to deliver it. After paying for the book and confirming my email I didn't have to do anything except look in my library and there it was. Super easy.
Profile Image for Gale.
1,970 reviews22 followers
January 7, 2026
I didn’t realize how much I missed the Troubleshooters until I started reading this book. I love how this story focuses on Jules. It truly showcases how he became who he is, today, and his strong, deep relationship with Robin. It tells of Jules’s current personal struggles and how he learns that there are many people around him, old and new friends, that will always have his “six”. It also shows him how important Robin is to his life – I love these two! And that he is now working for Troubleshooters, in LA? Just perfect! Loved it!
353 reviews2 followers
February 3, 2026
Absolutely loved it!! I really hope this is the start of a new series for the Troubleshooter team!.

There was nothing about this book I disliked. These characters are so very amazing. Miles and Sam are two of my favorite characters e er in this series!! Ms. Brick man's storytelling is just so good. You get to be part of the character's lives!!
Profile Image for Nicole Luiken.
Author 20 books169 followers
December 16, 2025
I stayed up late on release day to finish reading this. It was not only great fun to revisit favorite series characters but to meet Jules' highschool gang in the subplot. Strong pacing and lots of heart.
3 reviews
December 17, 2025
I am half through the book,and it is really a pleasant read. Two of my favorite characters, interesting story. It is good to meet young Jules. And Suzanne Brockmann writes beautifully. This book is different from the other books in this series, but I enjoy it. I hope there will be more...
2 reviews
December 18, 2025
I have missed all the characters in Suzanne Brockmann's books. This book dropped the reader right back into the characters. The book is well written and the two storylines are very enjoyable. Great tie in at the end of the book with a promise of more books in the series.
Profile Image for Sbatdorf.
260 reviews7 followers
December 24, 2025
The long wait for Jules' book was worth the wait. This Brockman book is more mystery than romance but very entertaining. I could have done without the repeated commentary of over the last election, but it didn't stop me from loving the story.
28 reviews3 followers
December 18, 2025
It was so much fun to read another Troubleshooter's book. Action, humor, a good mystery, lots of beloved characters, and Brockmann's excellent writing. Definitely a 5-star book!
Profile Image for Shanny.
2 reviews3 followers
December 29, 2025
I loved this book. Going back and forth between Jules' high school years and a crazy fun case was great insight into his character. The book was fun and exciting.
Profile Image for Carly.
555 reviews12 followers
December 31, 2025
Five stars because I loved it and I love Jules (and Hobbit).
35 reviews
January 7, 2026
This book was worth the wait! It was great to be back in the world of Troubleshooters again. I am looking forward to the next book in this series.
1,067 reviews1 follower
February 3, 2026
Jules is kicked out of the FBI

Sam talks him into joining Troubleshooter Security. He opens an office in LA tone near Robin. His first case is to find a lost heiress.
Profile Image for Becky.
3,441 reviews142 followers
January 21, 2026
Absolutely loved! So excited to see the Troubleshooters continue past their various roles in public service :) I will read the heck out of each and every book that Jules and Sam are in together...and if Jules continues his investigating with other partners, that'll be OK too. (That goes twice if his OG investigative partners from high school are going to take part--loved each and every one of them too!)

Jules Cassidy, P.I. flips back and forth between present day, as Jules and Sam investigate Jules' first case post-FBI, and Jules' senior year of high school. Ms Brockmann did a fabulous job of keeping each timeline moving along nicely, and since I was pretty much equally invested in each I *almost* didn't mind when she left us hanging in one to pick up events in the other ;) Both mysteries were engrossing and kept me eagerly turning the pages, ready to have them resolve their cases but also not wanting the book to end.

I guess I'll just have to trust that she's got plenty more coming where this one came from, yes?

I both appreciate and am in awe of just how grounded the author's books are in the world we're currently living in, and of course it's wonderful to see so many beloved characters also struggle with what is happening in the country today and make such courageous choices (if you're familiar with the author's politics and don't agree with them, don't bother reading these books. They're not for you. If you don't know her politics, just look her up--she's never hidden them, and I love her for it).

Technically, this is a new start for the Troubleshooters gang, and it *could* be read as a standalone. However, it's very much grounded in the stories that came before--truly, reading this at times felt like attending a reunion with some of my favorite people--so do yourself a favor and start reading from the beginning so you don't miss a single inside joke or reference. You can thank me later :)

Rating: 4 1/2 stars / A

I received a copy via the author's Kickstarter campaign to publish her book.
Profile Image for Philippa Lodge.
Author 20 books239 followers
February 2, 2026
4.5 stars, but rounded up because it's Jules Cassidy! Including his teenage self! (Solving a nasty case of roofies, so content warning there.)

Also political content, as he's been squeezed out of the FBI due to politics. And he's depressed.

But he's opening an L.A. branch of Troubleshooters and taking his first case with his old friend Sam. It's on a smaller scale than defeating terrorists, but compelling.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews

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