Jackpot

Frank Renzi mystery series

Fiction - Mystery - Sleuth
282 Pages
Reviewed on 02/15/2014
Buy on Amazon

This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Free Book Program, which is open to all readers and is completely free. The author will provide you with a free copy of their book in exchange for an honest review. You and the author will discuss what sites you will post your review to and what kind of copy of the book you would like to receive (eBook, PDF, Word, paperback, etc.). To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email.

This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Donation Program, which was created to help nonprofit and charitable organizations (schools, libraries, convalescent homes, soldier donation programs, etc.) by providing them with free books and to help authors garner more exposure for their work. This author is willing to donate free copies of their book in exchange for reviews (if circumstances allow) and the knowledge that their book is being read and enjoyed. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email. Be sure to tell the author who you are, what organization you are with, how many books you need, how they will be used, and the number of reviews, if any, you would be able to provide.

Author Biography

For many years award-winning novelist Susan Fleet worked as a professional trumpeter in the Boston area. While teaching at Brown University and Berklee College of Music, she began writing crime fiction. the Premier Book Awards named her first novel, Absolution, Best Mystery-Suspense-Thriller of 2009. Diva followed in 2011; Natalie's Revenge in 2012; Jackpot in 2013.

See more on her website: www.susanfleet.com Susan also blogs about true crime at DARK DEEDS http://darkdeeds.susanfleet.com/index.html#.UwYW3oVOlaI
While teaching at Berklee College of Music she created a course about 20th Century women musicians. Her e-book, Women Who Dared: Trailblazing 20th Century Musicians, spotlights violinist Maud Powell and trumpeter Edna White. http://www.susanfleet.com/women_who_dared-vol1.html

    Book Review

Reviewed by Julia Hopkinson for Readers' Favorite

Jackpot is one of Susan Fleet’s Frank Renzi crime novels and, although it is the fourth in the series, it takes the form of a prequel to the previous books, covering Frank’s earlier years in Boston, Massachusetts. The book finds Frank at a critical point in both his personal and his professional lives. At home, his marriage of 20 years to Evelyn has stalled, but his long-term affair with Gina is still going strong, and at work he’s investigating not only an apparent gang slaying but also the latest case of a serial killer targeting elderly, female lottery winners. The story is told from multiple points of view, including that of the murderer, so is not so much a whodunit, as an enthralling ‘how to catch 'em’ and ‘why.’

Jackpot is the only Frank Renzi book I have read so far and I really enjoyed it. I liked the characters of Frank and Gina, and Frank’s colleagues, and the story is thrilling and gripping. The writing is tight, and builds to an effective and tense climax, although the scenes from the murderer’s point of view are quite brutal and often disturbing. The book is slightly let down by some repetitious sentences and inconsistencies: Kathie becoming Kathy Lee, the killer’s gun changing from a Mark II to a Mark IV, and by identifying the Beatles classic ‘Eleanor Rigby’ as "Beatles tune 'Lonely People.'" These minor gripes aside, I am really pleased to have discovered Susan Fleet and will definitely be reading the rest of the series.