Monday, March 5, 2018

Unwrapping a Review of COUNTDOWN, a Cassidy & Spenser Thriller by Carey Baldwin


Carey Baldwin has done it again. She’s conjured a thriller that will keep you turning the pages late into the night with COUNTDOWN, book 5 in the Cassidy & Spenser Thriller series from Witness Impulse.

***purchased for my personal reading but sharing an honest and unscripted review

Blurb for COUNTDOWN:

Don’t believe everything you see.

Special Agent Atticus Spenser and forensic psychiatrist Dr. Caitlin Cassidy are in Tahiti enjoying a much-needed break from the FBI when they spot newlyweds taking fun photos on the beach. But as the groom carries his bride deeper into the waves, Spense is positive he sees a flash of terror cross her face. All his instincts scream that this woman is in danger. Yet moments later, it’s the groom who has nearly drowned… and the bride has vanished, leaving a bloody wedding dress floating in her wake.

The authorities aren’t sure who to believe—the groom, who insists his wife tried to murder him… or her twin, who claims her sister must have acted in self-defense. Intrigued, Spense and Caity agree to help investigate. But when they discover that the missing bride is the daughter of a notorious confidence man, they begin to suspect that all is not what it seems. Now they’ll need to separate victim from villain, fact from fiction, truth from lie, to determine if there’s really a killer on the loose… or if it’s all one big con.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Caity and Spense are in Tahiti to get married. The last thing they want or expect is to be drawn into a mystery regarding another couple they watch doing their photo shoot at the water’s edge after happily getting married on the same beach where they plan to have their own ceremony. As they watch the happy couple play and romp in the surf, everything suddenly turns serious when it looks as if the couple might be in trouble, possibly drowning. Spense springs to action and dives into the surf to help, with Caity right behind him. Suddenly, nothing is as it seems. The bride pulls out a gun, and shoots the groom, tears off her wedding dress, swims away and climbs into a nearby boat. When the bride appears in Caity and Spense’s bungalow later that night in her wedding undies, holding that same gun on them, they become very involved in what turns out to be the greatest of all cons.

This is by far my favorite of the series. From the moment I read the first page, the action started and never seemed to stop until the very end—an ending that brought tears to my eyes. Weddings don’t usually do that to me in books, but this one did. Caity and Spense are one of my favorite couples not just because they solve crimes together in a unique and sometimes, unorthodox way but because these two are truly perfect for each other. At times, they even seem to know what the other is thinking. They are fun together, even when aggravating each other. They are so in love with each other, even when they are fighting their feelings for each other. So to see them get their magic moment in the sunset was just wonderful. Especially after solving a con perpetrated by the last person, you ever expect to be instigating it. Excellent! Carey totally caught me by surprise.

If you love thrillers. If you love puzzles. If you love a watching a couple fall in love, work like a team, and want an action-packed page turning story, I highly, highly recommend COUNTDOWN, the fifth book in the Cassidy & Spenser Thriller series. If you haven’t read the first four, I recommend it but I suppose you could start anywhere. But if you do, I know you’ll want to go back and experience how these two met, and how their wonderful relationship came to be, and how it progressed to such a happy place. Thank you, Carey, for reminding me why I love this series so much.

Happy Reading Everyone!

COUNTDOWN, a Cassidy & Spenser Thriller by Carey Baldwin, Witness Impulse, available now at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobobooks.


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