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Takedown
Not yet published
Expected 27 Oct 26In this gritty police procedural from New York Times bestselling author Allison Brennan, a detective plays a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse with a charismatic lawyer who’s more than he seems.
Detective Skye Truman’s investigation into a series of sexual assaults has led her to the culprit: Trent Calderon, the most charming, affable lawyer in the governor’s office. The man who has an answer for everything. Skye’s obsession grows with every victim, every escalation, every encounter with Calderon, and every moral compromise she makes to catch him. Because if she doesn’t, she risks losing more than just her badge.
Allison Brennan’s Takedown is part of Pursuit, a gripping collection of short stories that explore what it means to be predator and prey … and what it takes to gain the upper hand. Read or listen to each pulse-pounding story in a single sitting—and an intense adrenaline rush.
Detective Skye Truman’s investigation into a series of sexual assaults has led her to the culprit: Trent Calderon, the most charming, affable lawyer in the governor’s office. The man who has an answer for everything. Skye’s obsession grows with every victim, every escalation, every encounter with Calderon, and every moral compromise she makes to catch him. Because if she doesn’t, she risks losing more than just her badge.
Allison Brennan’s Takedown is part of Pursuit, a gripping collection of short stories that explore what it means to be predator and prey … and what it takes to gain the upper hand. Read or listen to each pulse-pounding story in a single sitting—and an intense adrenaline rush.
75 pages, Kindle Edition
Expected publication October 27, 2026
About the author
Allison Brennan
110 books5,697 followersNew York Times and USA Today bestselling author Allison Brennan believes that life is too short to be bored, so she had five children and writes three books a year.
In 2019, Allison relocated from Northern California to Arizona with her family and assorted pets. She loves baseball, hiking, family game night, and (of course) reading.
RT Book Reviews called Allison “a master of suspense” and her books “haunting,” “mesmerizing,” “pulse-pounding” and “emotionally complex.” She's been nominated for many awards, and is a three time winner of the Reviewer's Choice award winner for RT Book Reviews as well as the Daphne du Maurier award. Most recently, she was nominated for Best Paperback Original by International Thriller Writers.
With over 45 books and dozens of short stories, Allison is writing multiple series and the occasional stand alone thriller. Her most recent book out now is THE MISSING WITNESS, part of the Quinn & Costa series. In June Allison is launching a new Phoenix-set series about a family of private investigators starting with YOU'LL NEVER FIND ME.
You can reach Allison through Goodreads or her website.
In 2019, Allison relocated from Northern California to Arizona with her family and assorted pets. She loves baseball, hiking, family game night, and (of course) reading.
RT Book Reviews called Allison “a master of suspense” and her books “haunting,” “mesmerizing,” “pulse-pounding” and “emotionally complex.” She's been nominated for many awards, and is a three time winner of the Reviewer's Choice award winner for RT Book Reviews as well as the Daphne du Maurier award. Most recently, she was nominated for Best Paperback Original by International Thriller Writers.
With over 45 books and dozens of short stories, Allison is writing multiple series and the occasional stand alone thriller. Her most recent book out now is THE MISSING WITNESS, part of the Quinn & Costa series. In June Allison is launching a new Phoenix-set series about a family of private investigators starting with YOU'LL NEVER FIND ME.
You can reach Allison through Goodreads or her website.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
4.5 stars
This is an Amazon Original Story. This is a review of the audiobook narrated by Hillary Huber.
This is a wonderful short story. It features Detective Skye Truman working on a case with a serial rapist.
She is positive that she knows the guilty party. But she can’t catch him and he taunts her. Trent Calderon is smug and arrogant. There are actually a few chapters from Trent’s POV.
This is a short story. But it is so interesting and I really enjoyed it.
Hillary Huber is amazing. She plays Skye perfectly. I really enjoyed her performance so much. Her voice is so perfect for this detective.
This story is so good. It is riveting and captivating. And I didn’t want it to end.
Thank you to Brilliance Publishing for the gifted audiobook.
This is an Amazon Original Story. This is a review of the audiobook narrated by Hillary Huber.
This is a wonderful short story. It features Detective Skye Truman working on a case with a serial rapist.
She is positive that she knows the guilty party. But she can’t catch him and he taunts her. Trent Calderon is smug and arrogant. There are actually a few chapters from Trent’s POV.
This is a short story. But it is so interesting and I really enjoyed it.
Hillary Huber is amazing. She plays Skye perfectly. I really enjoyed her performance so much. Her voice is so perfect for this detective.
This story is so good. It is riveting and captivating. And I didn’t want it to end.
Thank you to Brilliance Publishing for the gifted audiobook.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
BLURB:
Detective Skye Truman’s convinced that lawyer Trent Calderon is behind a series of sexual assaults, but he always has airtight alibis. As the attacks escalate, Skye risks it all to take him down.
REVIEW:
If you enjoy gritty police procedurals that you can finish in one sitting, this is one to add to your list. It’s part of Amazon Original Stories’ Pursuit Collection—a collection of short stories exploring what it means to be the predator and the prey. It’s just over an hour and a half on audio and feels like a novella because so much happens in a short time. It’s fast-paced and has a feisty, determined FMC, Detective Skye Truman, who you’ll root for. In the story, she’s determined to catch a serial rapist who she’s convinced is a highly respected lawyer, Trent Calderon. The story has a gripping start with the discovery of a murdered female park patrol officer, the eighth victim from the attacker.
The story follows Detective Skye Truman in 3rd-person POV, and I loved her character! She’s had her eye on Trent for some time and has interviewed him before, but he always manages to stay one step ahead of her. After the opening murder, Trent’s questioned by Skye and her boss, Joe Garcia, and it’s evident how smug, arrogant, and calculating he is—a real psychopath! He has an alibi for all the assaults and this time claims he spent the night with his new girlfriend. I loved Skye’s inner monologues, as she doesn’t believe a word of it, and she gets so aggravated because she knows he’s guilty and wants to nail him. Skye works with a rookie officer, Maggie, in the story, and I really enjoyed their dynamic.
Skye makes some very risky decisions, and I had no idea how everything was going to play out. The story moves quickly, and Brennan didn’t waste time with unnecessary details. Trent’s such an unlikable, despicable villain with his own sinister agenda, and his takedown couldn’t come soon enough!
The small cast of characters works well for a short story, and everything was easy to follow. There are a few plot turns that I definitely didn’t see coming, which made it more enjoyable for me, and I liked the surprise reveal in the last chapter—although I should have probably predicted it. I don’t think that Skye appears in any of the author’s other works, but I’d love to have a full-length police procedural novel or even a series with her as the protagonist!
If you’re looking for a short, propulsive thriller that you can listen to in one sitting or during a commute that will entertain you from start to finish, definitely consider grabbing a copy!
🎧NARRATION🎧
TAKEDOWN is read by award-winning narrator Hillary Huber, and we couldn’t have asked for a better narrator than Hillary Huber! If you’ve listened to her narrations before (especially her thriller narrations), you know how fantastic she is at portraying strong, determined female characters, and she does a fantastic job with Skye. She also gives all the different characters distinct voices and makes the police station, crime scenes, and dramatic dialogue all come to life like a movie in your mind.
In Skye’s inner monologues and exchanges with her boss, Joe Garcia, you can hear how much her job means to her and how seriously she takes her mission to take down Trent and protect the women he’s targeting. She also does a remarkable job portraying Trent with a calm, smug, conniving energy that made him infuriating and entirely unlikable. I loved the way she narrated Skye and Trent’s exchanges because you could really feel the tension between them and the gameplay happening underneath their conversations from both of them. So entertaining!!
The narration reminded me a bit of the Frankie Elkins series, which Huber narrates and I absolutely LOVE. Fans of Hillary’s performances as feisty female protagonists or her thriller book performances should grab a copy immediately!
Detective Skye Truman’s convinced that lawyer Trent Calderon is behind a series of sexual assaults, but he always has airtight alibis. As the attacks escalate, Skye risks it all to take him down.
REVIEW:
If you enjoy gritty police procedurals that you can finish in one sitting, this is one to add to your list. It’s part of Amazon Original Stories’ Pursuit Collection—a collection of short stories exploring what it means to be the predator and the prey. It’s just over an hour and a half on audio and feels like a novella because so much happens in a short time. It’s fast-paced and has a feisty, determined FMC, Detective Skye Truman, who you’ll root for. In the story, she’s determined to catch a serial rapist who she’s convinced is a highly respected lawyer, Trent Calderon. The story has a gripping start with the discovery of a murdered female park patrol officer, the eighth victim from the attacker.
The story follows Detective Skye Truman in 3rd-person POV, and I loved her character! She’s had her eye on Trent for some time and has interviewed him before, but he always manages to stay one step ahead of her. After the opening murder, Trent’s questioned by Skye and her boss, Joe Garcia, and it’s evident how smug, arrogant, and calculating he is—a real psychopath! He has an alibi for all the assaults and this time claims he spent the night with his new girlfriend. I loved Skye’s inner monologues, as she doesn’t believe a word of it, and she gets so aggravated because she knows he’s guilty and wants to nail him. Skye works with a rookie officer, Maggie, in the story, and I really enjoyed their dynamic.
Skye makes some very risky decisions, and I had no idea how everything was going to play out. The story moves quickly, and Brennan didn’t waste time with unnecessary details. Trent’s such an unlikable, despicable villain with his own sinister agenda, and his takedown couldn’t come soon enough!
The small cast of characters works well for a short story, and everything was easy to follow. There are a few plot turns that I definitely didn’t see coming, which made it more enjoyable for me, and I liked the surprise reveal in the last chapter—although I should have probably predicted it. I don’t think that Skye appears in any of the author’s other works, but I’d love to have a full-length police procedural novel or even a series with her as the protagonist!
If you’re looking for a short, propulsive thriller that you can listen to in one sitting or during a commute that will entertain you from start to finish, definitely consider grabbing a copy!
🎧NARRATION🎧
TAKEDOWN is read by award-winning narrator Hillary Huber, and we couldn’t have asked for a better narrator than Hillary Huber! If you’ve listened to her narrations before (especially her thriller narrations), you know how fantastic she is at portraying strong, determined female characters, and she does a fantastic job with Skye. She also gives all the different characters distinct voices and makes the police station, crime scenes, and dramatic dialogue all come to life like a movie in your mind.
In Skye’s inner monologues and exchanges with her boss, Joe Garcia, you can hear how much her job means to her and how seriously she takes her mission to take down Trent and protect the women he’s targeting. She also does a remarkable job portraying Trent with a calm, smug, conniving energy that made him infuriating and entirely unlikable. I loved the way she narrated Skye and Trent’s exchanges because you could really feel the tension between them and the gameplay happening underneath their conversations from both of them. So entertaining!!
The narration reminded me a bit of the Frankie Elkins series, which Huber narrates and I absolutely LOVE. Fans of Hillary’s performances as feisty female protagonists or her thriller book performances should grab a copy immediately!
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
This was a fast and fierce read. I listened to this one on audiobook and man I was hooked. If you are looking for a fast listen, check out this high octane dark gritty police procedural short story. I gotta say I was not mad out this outcome. 😉
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews