Monday, August 15, 2016

GO-BETWEEN by Lisa Brackmann




    If you read Lisa Brackmann’s best selling Getaway (2012) you’ve probably been impatiently waiting for Go-Between as it brings us up to date on Michelle Mason, heroine of Getaway.  Once again Brackmann has penned a smart, timely thriller that’ll keep you up until all hours.  It has a fast start and once begun it’s impossible to put down.

    With Go-Between Michelle has reinvented herself and started a new life.  She’s now Emily and the owner of Evergreen, a popular bistro in Humboldt County, California.  There’s usually a full house as the food is good, wines are fine (2001 Chateau Montelena, Turley, Rafanelli), and the prices are reasonable.  She has a capable, trustworthy staff and life seems fine.  Nonetheless after what she’s been through she does keep a custom made .38 Smith & Wesson tucked in her hobo.

    She lives with her fire fighter boyfriend, Jeff, known as Danny in Getaway.  Jeff doesn’t just put out blazes but earns extra cash by flying cannabis to out-of-state customers.  All is well until he’s arrested in Texas on federal drug trafficking charges.  In order to get Jeff’s charges dropped Michelle must cooperate with their old enemy Gary, a former CIA agent lacking in scruples, well equipped with meanness.  He wants Michelle to ingratiate herself with Kaitlin O’Connor, a wealthy socialite who heads Safer America, a welfa re organization working to stop criminal activity.  Gary and the guys in the shadows who are backing him want Kaitlin to help defeat a Texas bill that makes marijuana legal for recreational use.  Winning Kaitlin’s trust and keeping it isn’t an easy task for Michelle as Kaitlin has a bit of a drinking problem

    Brackmann’s noir plot peppered with lies, murder, dirty politics, drug struggling, and betrayal hurtles to a shocking conclusion.

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