Everything in Detective Morgan Foster’s life is a secret… Living in West End, West Virginia wasn’t part of the plan, but the murders of her husband, Peter, and her partner, AJ Roth, have sent her into hiding.
For a while, everything seemed to be fine, but two dead bodies at her waitressing job tell another story...
Unable to ignore the threat that’s crashed down on her carefully constructed secret life, Morgan gets caught in a web of motorcycle gangs, murder and a bounty that has six figures hanging over her head.
Before long, Morgan is in the sights of the people that want her dead again. Can she solve the murders before she becomes the next body to drop?
The first in a series by KJ Kalis, West End Justice following Detective Morgan Foster (Vigilante Justice Thriller Series), this novel, as all of those by KJ Kalis, catches you at the start and never lets up. And because she is quite prolific, it won't be long until we can continue the story. 'Blister' is due for release imminently.
Maddie (formerly Morgan) and her son are in WITSEC and have been re-located into a very small town in the West Virginia mountains. A former Tampa police detective, Maddie's current job is waitressing at the truck stop on the highway, and her son Dominic (once Danny), a high school junior and star baseball player, are living hand-to-mouth and the sense of safety they expected was not really forthcoming. Dom will not be able to use his baseball prowess to get into college, and every day there is another worry falling on Maddie's shoulders. She is second-guessing herself, not sure they would not be better off if she had just refused witness protection and relocated somewhere on the west coast, taking their chances with the cartel and motorcycle gang members who murdered her husband and her partner, members she testified against in open court. They would still be Morgan and Danny, and have a real-life.
Or be dead, according to her handler. Her Federal Marshall handler, Blake Hayes, is doing his best to assure them that they are now safe, but Morgan is an experienced cop and knows better. Well, she knows 'safe' when she feels it. And then the couple who owned the restaurant at the truck stop where she worked is murdered in the walk-in freezer. And things begin tumbling downhill from there. Only time will tell how low it can go.
pub date December 27, 2021 Pub BDM LLC Reviewed on December 30, 2021, at Goodreads, AmazonSmile, and BookBub, Not available for review on B&N, Kobo, or GooglePlay.
This is book one of the Detective Morgan Foster Vigilante Justice Thriller series and opens with Morgan, now known as Maddie Franklin and her son Danny, now Dominic, going to her job as a waitress at a truck stop in West End, West Virginia, at the ungodly hour of five in the morning for her shift to help open the restaurant ready for customers. She has been relocated with her son, from the sunnier climes of Florida, after her husband Peter and her law enforcement partner AJ were killed by a motorcycle gang calling themselves the Sons of Goliath. She was taken prisoner by its leader Leo McDaniel and held in a small space, giving her a real fear of any small or enclosed space. After killing Leo’s brother and testifying against other gang members, she and her son were placed in the Witness Protection program and she could no longer be what and who she was, nor could she have any contact with anyone in her old life. After some two years of barely existing and making ends meet in a drab apartment, she arrives at her job that day, to find the door open but all the lights out! She should maybe have thought a little more about that, but she has grown a little soft since she arrived her. She finds her employers bodies in the freezer of the truck stop freezer and nearly has a full blown panic attack before she can get back out of the small space, asking another employee, Willie, who has just shown up, to call the police! She runs back out to her truck and rings US Marshal Blake Hayes, her only contact with her protective detail. He tells her to carry on as normal and not to try to solve the murder, but this has happened a little bit too close to home and it could have been her, leaving Danny (Dominic) an orphan! The local sheriff’s department soon have to hand the case over to the state troopers and an officer called Sam Benton catches the case. He has to wait for CSI’s and the ME to turn up and is annoyed to find the main witness who found the bodies has been sent home by a US Marshal, who says he was in the area and responded. Maddie has been hardened by what she has gone through in the last few years and her interview by Sam is pretty one sided, with Maddie asking for the witness statement to fill in herself and directing him to contact Blake if he has any further questions! She can’t reveal that she is in Witness Protection to anyone, even a cop, and still has a large bounty on her head, that is open to any motorcycle gang in the country, so she and her son aren’t safe anywhere. What she doesn’t know, is that Leo and four of his gang are actually in a remote cabin in the area, to meet with another motorcycle gang leader about a possible joint venture and also to look for a couple who stole bearer bonds from the Russia mob worth millions! Leo doesn’t know she is even in this area, as her disappearance after the court case was sudden and totally secret. But when one of his men sees someone that looks like her, and is in fact her in a slight disguise, he is immediately back on her trail. The killing of her bosses at the truck stop is linked to the gang by the ME, but the trooper believes Maddie is his main suspect having gone off on a tangent and narrowing his field of view completely! Leo and his gang members are now hunting her and won’t stop until they find and kill her! She is in immediate danger and only her return to being her former self and determination to stop hiding, will aid her in surviving this gang a second time. The chase is on and Maddie is determined to end the killers hunting her family down and to finally be free to live the live she and her son want. She is no longer a police detective, but she has the skills to carry out her own investigation on the couple’s murder and find details the police and troopers have missed, as well as the ability with a deadly weapon to protect herself and those she loves! This woman is not running away any more and is determined to put a stop to the gang leader and get justice for her husband and partner. I can’t wait to see what the next book has her involved in and where they may end up. I would recommend this book to all who love a good thriller or police procedural and especially any fans of the author. It certainly lives up to their usual high standards and you won’t want to put it down until you have finished! I have already gone ahead and bought the next book in the series, so I didn’t have long to wait. I received an ARC copy of this book from BookSprout and I have freely given my own opinion of the book above.
her and her teen son are in witness protection. she used to be detective her husband and another man were murdered by a biker gang , she had killed the leaders son she was abducted and held in his trailer (didnt get the background on that and how she got away) so she is claustrophobic
they were relocated from fl and she works as a waitress in a truck stop she comes in to work and the owners were shot and killed in the freezer
she called the marshall in charge of her witness protection and he tells her not to tell the cops who she is
she just gives bare bone facts and the detective is suspicious of her she went and snuck back in and found a shell casing they missed, but they found a print they cant match, she wasnt wearing gloves when she pulled the crime tape
during autopsy they find the other shell casings in their mouths
it was the same biker gang, one of them said he shot them cause they wouldnt make him a sandwich cause it was too early and they werent open yet
turns out the gang that killed her husband and partner also left the casings in the deads mouths. so they knew the gang was in town
she changed her hair and eye color back to natural and went after them
they came after her and she killed them when they held a knife to her sons throat after breaking his nose
she and her son packed up to go back to fl
i would read more of this series
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I read a lot of reader book reviews and base my new book purchases upon them, as I imagine many of you do too, because of that, I try to be honest and transparent in all the reviews that I write. With that in mind, let me begin this review by saying that I’ve read, no, not read, but devoured many K J Kalis’s books and have yet to read one that didn’t deserve more than five stars. No, I have never met K J, and she’s definitely not paying me to say these things, she’s simply earned them by becoming my queen of the mystery/thriller genre. If you love mystery/thriller with strong, kick butt female leads, you can’t go wrong with Kalis.
West End Justice, book 1 in the A Detective Morgan Foster Vigilante Thriller series, was the first book in this awesome five book series that I’ve read, but it hooked me on Morgan. I’ve already ordered the remaining books in the series. This action-packed thriller moves like an 18-wheeler with no brakes on a steep downhill two-lane road. Like with all of Kalis’s books, West End Justice has an ending that will blow you socks off.
Kalis is the master of the backstory, so we know enough about Morgan’s past to fully understand what made Morgan into the woman we meet in West End Justice, still, I would like to see Kalis write a prequel to this series where we can see the entire backstory play out in all its gory details.
This book is the first of author Kalis' Morgan Foster series. There is a lot of backstory that could almost be a prequel. It takes up some verbiage that might have been better spent developing a few other things in the story.
The story is a good one, as most all of Ms. Kalis' books are. It is pretty well developed, though I think she could have spent more time developing Sam Bennett. The pacing is very good. There are a few places where there are misplaced or misused apostrophes. Unless you're a "grammar Nazi" you may not even notice it (yes, it's true - I'm a stickler for proper grammar).
There was one mistake that detective Foster made that is good for the drama, but unsettling gun form. Always know your target and what lies beyond. Foster would have heard that every time she went to the range. The gunfight was not a problem. She feared for her life and Danny's. She was not at a gun range and adrenaline was high. However the last shot she fired (trying to avoid spoilers) was out of keeping with that as the round could easily have gone into the apartment below hers.
This book is worth reading. I've given it four stars, which could easily have been 5 on another day. If you enjoy fast paced, unputdownable books, any of K J. Kalis' books would be fine. This one included.
This first-in-series book introduces us to Detective Morgan Foster, a gutsy woman who bravely testifies against a ruthless motorcycle gang and consequently endures unthinkable losses that shatter her family. To protect her son, Danny, from further retribution at the hands of cold-blooded killers, she enters into the witness protection program. She leaves behind her home, her friends, her career, everything she has known and worked so hard to achieve. Detective Morgan Foster, now a truck stop waitress going by the name of Maddie Franklin along with her son, now known as Dominic, try to build a new life for themselves in West Virginia. Sadly, fate has other plans for them. This gripping thriller drew me in instantly and kept a tight choke-hold on my attention until I finished the last page. The plot is intriguing, the characters are interesting and genuine, and the tension is relentless. I highly recommend this new series to anyone who enjoys a taut thriller with a strong, but realistic, female protagonist. I’ve already purchased the second book in the series.
Morgan and Danny have been moved to West End, a small town in West Virginia with the Witness Security program after she chased and served as a witness in the trial of several members of a bike gang - the Sons of Goliath. From a life where she worked as a detective in the Tampa area, she became a restaurant help, without any good prospects to do anything further. Life is as dull as it can be till the day her employers are killed and Morgan is the one that finds them. She cannot stand still and starts to search for what is going on. All of sudden, her not-so-easy life, is turned upside down, and there's a stronger need for protection. Will she have help from the Witsec program Marshals? Will the locals help her? A great and fast-paced written story that will not allow you to put the book down until you reach the end. Great entertainment!
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Detective Morgan Foster, aka Maddie Franklin and her sone Danny, aka Dominic, are in the witness protection due to some really bad guys wanting to kill her. They already killed her husband and former partner in Florida. Now she is a waitress in a small town in West Virginia barely eking out a living, and she is getting tired of it. But when her bosses at the truck stop, she worked at are murdered and it has all the tale-tale signs of the Sons of Goliath killing. That is the group that has put a bounty on her head since she killed the leader's brother. Will she fight or flight? A well written story of courage. I received a free copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review.
This is the first book in the Vigilante Justice Thriller Series. Detective Morgan Foster was relocated along with her son under the Witness Ptotection Progrogram and is now living in West Virginia working as a waitress in a truck stop. After two years of living a quiet life as a waitress in a truck stop, suddenly her life is turned upside down when she discovers the murdered bodies of her bosses. And the action begins as Morgan gets involved and worries that her new identity will fail to protect her and her son. Looking forward to reading the next book in the series.
This book focused on the witness protection program and two separate families that had overlapping protection. The small town in West Virginia was poor and had few jobs. The couple that ran the restaurant was murdered and found by one of their waitresses. Lots of suspense, with the State Trooper believing the waitress was the murderer even though the coroner pointed to a gang from Florida. Interesting read, I highly recommend.
West End Justice is the first of a series of great thrillers by KJ Kalis. I actually read it after two and three which wasn't too bad but I would suggest starting with Book 1. The explanation of her life is mentioned in the other books but to get the full story, it's smart to start with 1. Kalis' stories are really exciting; her characters likeable and her books are hard to put down.
Detective Morgan Foster and her young son are in witness protection, after Morgan’s testimony against the Sons of Goliath. Somehow, quiet little West End, West Virginia becomes a whole lot less safe.
Expect to lose a few nails and to hold your breath at times. Published by BDM, LLC this copy was received through BookFunnel. These thoughts are my own and were in no way solicited.
A female ex detective and son from Florida, now living in West Virginia under witsec, is still being hunted by the motorcycle club who murdered her partner and her husband. Working at a diner she goes to work one morning and finds the owners dead in the walk-in freezer. A clue from the murders seems to tie back to the motorcycle club. Awesome cast of characters, non stop action and a very well written storyline will keep you on the edge of your seat.
Is a story about The witness protection program. When a couple running a restaurant are murdered The waitress became a prime Suspect to the Murder. The waitress was also in the Witness protection program With a price on her head from a biker group. How she copes with everything Is the basis of this story. A surprise ending well written. Looking forward to next book
The character of Morgan begins as a miserable person because of being in the witness program. She seems very down because her husband and working partner were killed because she testified against the mobster motorcycle gang and killed of the members brothers . Everything just snowballed from there and the book was very suspenseful from there..
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
This one was a non stop ride. Looks like this might turn into the beginning of a good series. It will be interesting to see if Morgan can pick up where her life was ripped from under her.
Enjoyed reading this book as I really like this author's style of writing. The book held my interest throughout. For the most part, the characters were believable. I recommend this author and book.
A female detective, in Florida, killed a biker gangs leaders brother. In retaliation, the bikers did the same thing. To her husband and partner. Now in witness protection, the biker gang ends up where she and her son are at.
I enjoy reading this e book , Morgan is really brave. She fight for her son freedom to live a n normal life. The vigilante have killed her husband and partner, Morgan is an officer forced into the witness protection program. Enjoy
I really like this story. It is well written with appropriate language. I followed the story and even with the various trails it came together. I liked the fact that Morgan wasn't stupid at the end and she did what she needed to do to end it.
A great read, it was very entertaining, exciting and not a dull moment the characters were real and the book was thrilling from start to finish. To bad it had to end.
Being in the WITSEC program can definitely be a challenge, especially for a young boy. Detective Foster was handling it well until Junior threw a kink into the situation. Good outcome.
Terrific. Suspense builds throughout the book and is wrapped up at the end with a neat bow. Quick read with a clear story line and character design. Highly recommend for a reader that enjoys suspense.
Good plot with twists that keep it rolling. Protagonist is both likable and plain spoken. She doesn’t wear a mask or pretend to be someone she’s not in spite of the program she lives. I enjoyed this.
This was a pretty good read. The author was very good in the description of the characters it was easy to route for Morgan and Danny and to like Blake.