Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book
Rate this book
When you stop running, the past catches up with you.

Detective Erin O’Reilly has never needed anyone to tell her she’s tough. She’s taken the worst New York City can throw at her, surviving gunfights, explosions, mobsters, and serial killers. But now, as she returns from a well-earned vacation, she finds there are some enemies that bullets can’t touch. As she and her K-9 partner Rolf dive into their newest case — a military veteran and his wife murdered in a cold-blooded home invasion — Erin must confront the lingering legacy of trauma.

Violence leaves scars on the flesh and the spirit of victims and perpetrators alike. Plagued by the aftershocks of what she’s already survived, Erin will need to dig deep to struggle through new dangers. In the process she will tear open the wounds of broken men who are back from war but still fighting for their lives and their sanity. But she will soon find that the enemies on the outside are nothing compared to the toughest battle: the struggle for her own soul.

206 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 19, 2020

214 people are currently reading
44 people want to read

About the author

Steven Henry

35 books80 followers
Steven Henry is the USA Today bestselling author of the Erin O’Reilly mysteries and the Clarion Chronicles.

Steven learned how to read almost before he learned how to walk. Ever since he began reading stories, he wanted to put his own on the page. He lives a very quiet and ordinary life in Minnesota with his wife and dog.

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
242 (67%)
4 stars
92 (25%)
3 stars
24 (6%)
2 stars
2 (<1%)
1 star
1 (<1%)
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
Profile Image for Marylou Willis.
58 reviews2 followers
January 10, 2021
I love these books. This one was pretty intense as Erin tries to get inside the head of a veteran just returned from Iraq. Steven Henry is one of my all time favorite writers. I highly recommend this series. Oh and as an added bonus each book has a drink recipe!
2,399 reviews
May 21, 2021
Another well done story.

I am making a poor attempt not to read through this series at a fast clip. I make myself slow down and read some other lighter novel. Then I order the next book in this series. I am now buying book ten. Tells you how much I like this series. By the way, the information throughout this story pertaining to PTSD is excellent.
Profile Image for Jo Anne.
948 reviews10 followers
January 8, 2024
Erin watches in horror as her team is killed in a gunfight. Rolf is shot and killed. Then Erin wakes in a cold sweat, the nightmare still screaming in her head.
Flashback is about a group of soldiers newly returned to their homes in New York. Erin and Vic catch a case in which a soldier and his wife are found shot in their apartment. The way they are shot indicates the shooter was probably a soldier or a cop. As Erin and Vic work the case, Erin suffers from severe PTSD.
The Erin O'Reilly mysteries just get better and better, plus more violent. The writing is strong and I feel like I'm right in the middle of the action.
198 reviews
June 28, 2024
Moving murder mystery

This book focuses back on Erin and how she is affected by her work in Major Crimes. Who can help her? And then there's the murder case and the takedown, both exciting and moving as we learn about the way that some veterans are affected upon returning "home." Thanks for providing some insight on the topic! Looking forward to reading the next in series!
Profile Image for Kathryn A. Sievers.
157 reviews1 follower
March 24, 2021
Number 9 is good!

This series keeps going strong. I've read all 9 so far and am still looking forward to the next one!
8 reviews
February 17, 2024
As with other readers I am totally addicted to this series.
Erin O’Reilly is a bad ass women cop in love with an Irish mobster. The series is intense, but I can’t stop reading it.
327 reviews4 followers
November 13, 2020
Great reading

Great reading. Erin was called because a couple was shot. He was ex military and it looked like they had a party. They have to find out who was there and solve the case and find answers about flashback s.
Profile Image for Shana Pare.
913 reviews6 followers
March 31, 2021
Perhaps a better understanding for our combat vets.

Reading this made me sad, but it also gave me a different look at the combat vets I have known, including the one to whom I am married. It's not all the same experience.

I do recommend this book
72 reviews
September 23, 2023
Another crazy rollercoaster ride

Reading about Erin and her dog Rolf is always a good distraction. It takes one on an adventure that also touches on big city headlines. You cheer for the good guys and find that the criminals are human, too.
42 reviews
October 27, 2020
Flashback features a much subdued Detective Erin. She is still impulsive, but also introspective in this novel. She has a great deal of difficulty asking for help in anything. CMac
2 reviews
January 13, 2021
Mind games

Erin gets emotionally unstable at the end of this book, and I like to think of her as unstoppable. Now I need to find out how she gets back inside her head.
Profile Image for Dorothy Matheson.
42 reviews1 follower
April 1, 2021
I really like this character in Steven Henry's books so I was very happy to read his story. Book is well written.
1,655 reviews1 follower
December 23, 2025
This series still seems fresh and interesting. The relationship between Erin and Cars is an interesting dynamic that adds to the plot. Once you get started reading these are hard books to put down.
961 reviews4 followers
December 21, 2020
by Barbara Kelley

Flashback is book #9 in the Erin O'Reilly K-9 Mystery series by Steven Henry. This book is a story of a variety of PTSD traumas. Erin O'Reilly has several horrifying dreams of her human partner, Vic Neshenko and her K-9 partner, Rolf, as well as other members of her team being mowed down from an assault rifle. This is one of the most common forms of PTSD suffered by first responders, such as police, fire fighters, and war veterans. I had a friend many years ago who was shot by her ex-husband, and when she came back to work from the hospital, there was a loud banging sound from the warehouse. It was so loud that she screamed and crawled under desk with her hands over her ears. My brother was in the navy for 6 years, and when he came home, he had nightmares about everything he went through. It has been over 35 years and he still has nightmares sometimes. One of the characters in this story is the guy that diffuses bombs, and he had it right when he says that "thanking someone for their service" is not all it's cracked up to be. The words are meaningless when it comes down to the fact that 99% of soldiers see nothing but death while they are in the war. My nephew was out in the battlefield, guns a-blazing, and he wound up holding his dying friend in his arms. How does "thank you for your service" comfort him? I know it would not comfort me.

I could also look at Erin's nightmares as visions of the future, or premonitions, and how to stop these nightmares from becoming a reality.

Isn't it wonderful how most dogs can feel their mama's or papa's stress levels and calm them down with the wag of a tail? Rolf is one of my heroes in this series of books. He's beautiful, happy or sad when Erin is happy or sad, and I think everybody, whether they have PTSD, benefits from the friendship of a dog. I used to have a dog around me at all times, but I am too disabled now to take care of one. I hope to get a dog again someday.

Ian, Carlyle's bodyguard, was a marine in a former life. But once a soldier, always a soldier. He tells Erin some things she didn't know, like when a soldier comes home from a war, the war comes home with that soldier. They have flashbacks, and they see the enemy right in front of them, instead of the innocent people who are actually standing there. So, sometimes, totally innocent people get killed because of these flashbacks.

Erin, Rolf, and Vic went through a terrible napalm fire, and lived to tell about it, and proving that the good guys do sometimes win in the end, even when their hair and skin are burned. War wounds! That is what this scene reminds me of.

I continue to like the romantic relationship between Erin and Carlyle. I really, really, really hope that if her family (her mom and dad and brothers) ever find out that she is in love with Carlyle, that her family will welcome him with open arms, literally shocking the daylights out of Erin and everyone else around her.

I also have one complaint: the story about Ian called Dehydration was impossible for me to download. Is there a website I can go to, so that I can get this story, even if I have to pay for it?

I gave Flashback 5 stars.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.