"Unpunished" is a story full of grays, with no hard black and white lines. The story and the series have an intriguing premise with a cop who is also a vigilante killer and a forensic scientist who knows about him but is keeping secret for reasons of her own. That aspect interested and I'd like to see that explored more. We have a detective who is morally questionable, a CSI tech who tries to do right but is only human, and a killer who seems to have no remorse or shame yet is passionate about his day job. All of them are flawed, all of them have redeeming qualities, and all of them are or have done things that are legally, morally, and ethically questionable or flat-out wrong.

"Unpunished" is the second book in the series but worked well as a stand-alone. I would have liked to have read the first to better appreciate events but it wasn't necessary in order to understand. Maggie and Jack have a fragile relationship; she uncovered, in the previous book, that he was responsible for a string of deaths. She gave him an ultimatum and he agreed to abide by it, but will he? Or will he continue his murderous streak? And what will she do? Given their circumstances and what apparently happened in the first book, I would have expected more tension between Jack and Maggie. There was some, but it wasn't strong.

While dealing with all this, they are thrown together on a murder case at the local newspaper. The actual mystery was meh. That part of the story bogged down with way too much detail, and preachiness, on the aspects of running and printing a newspaper, and a killer whose behavior just didn't make sense to me. I had a hard time believing the reason why the killer did what they did and the means used to kill the victims. It seemed both over the top and absurd, but points for creativity.

There's a lot of potential which the story doesn't live up to but it's a decent story. I may read more in the series.

Beyond plausible. I had a hard time following the plot line.

I struggled with this book at times. The plot sounded interesting and having read the first book, I was looking forward to read more of Maggie and Jack. The plot fell flat sometimes and got a little bogged down by too much information about the newspaper industry. It also wasn't incredibly hard to figure out who the killer was as there really weren't that many characters. I do like the relationship between Maggie and Jack and I look forward to how this story plays out with them keeping this secret about Jack. I gave this 3 stars on goodreads.

The book opens with Maggie being called it to a crime scene, a body has been found. At 60% off the way through the book, the only other thing that's happened is another body has been found. There's very little about Maggie and Jack and the secret they share. At one point after an interview, one of the cops says something to the effect of 'we'd listened to him ramble for fifteen minutes and leaned exactly nothing'.
Unfortunately, that's kind of how I felt at the end of this book. I've learned about the newspaper business from ten different perspectives and that's about it. This was not a good crime, action, or mystery novel. The forensics part felt mechanical - Maggie would use acronyms or slang and then immediately explain it, instead of providing it in a context that allows me as a reader to infer the meanings for myself, or working the explanations into more natural dialogue. I feel like the primary focus of the whole book was to inform the reader about the newspaper business, and to draw awareness to a dying trade. The newspaper business both reporting and printing were very thoroughly researched - but it almost felt like the writer felt the need to incorporate every fact in there somewhere.
I wanted to give up at 95% of the way through, because I still did not care who the killer was, and I still feel like I only know Jack and Maggie on a superficial level. I had just really hoped to see more development of Maggie and Jack.

Maggie Gardiner (a forensic investigator) and Jack Renner (homicide detective) are working together to solve a case involving a series of murders at a local newspaper. The two are such a unique team because they have secrets that only they know. I quickly found out about Jack’s secret. However, I didn’t really get to know what Maggie was hiding.

What I really liked about the book was that the investigation revolved around the printing press. As a media studies student, this angle hooked me to the story right from the first page. The author did such a wonderful job by depicting the reality of print media hence creating a background to the case and some of the motives. The details about print media show that she researched into the subject quite well hence presenting the facts about the case in such an accurate and realistic manner.

I also enjoyed the team work between Jack and Maggie and was impressed by how they conducted the investigation. This was a solid crime thriller. However, I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought that I would because I hadn’t read the first book. I didn’t know Maggie’s and Jack’s history and some of the information was missing because it didn’t come up in this book.

I recommend this book to fans of crime thrillers. I think it is best to start the series from the beginning though so as to get familiar with the MCs and hence enjoy the story even more.

I came upon this book through an email from Netgalley. The publisher had pre-approved this title for me and since I can't say no to a book that sounds interesting I decided to give it a chance. After I read the opening scene I thought perhaps the book wasn't for me. It seemed to be too much of a police/gang member read and I'm not into that type of book. But, I don't like to start a book and then not finish it so I kept on. I'm glad I did because this turned out to be a really interesting read.

Maggie Gardiner is a forensic expert and Jack Renner is a cop. The two have a history and the details are somewhat of a mystery but bits and pieces are given to the reader throughout the book. At times I wondered if Jack was really a cop and after the book was finished I'm still wondering if he's a cop. There is a tension between these two and the fact that they are working a case together that keeps them in close contact doesn't help. There also seems to be a chemistry between the two as well. The two characters are strong and independent and easy to like.

This book has a good, solid storyline. The case the two are trying to solve is a murder at a newspaper. Throughout the case, there is much information about the state of print newspapers today and the evolving world of digital news. I found all of this very interesting and it made the newspaper another character in the book. News and our consumption of it have changed over the years and is still changing now. I thought the author did a great job of weaving this into the storyline. It seemed very "in the moment" and added a layer of realness to the book.

I found this book to be a quick read and a very entertaining one. Even though this book can be read as a standalone (which is how I read it) I would recommend reading the first book in the series before delving into this one. Doing this would make the Maggie/Jack storyline more clear. I like the author's writing style and will be looking forward to reading more of her work. A must-read for fans of the mystery/suspense genre.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher through Netgalley and was not required to write a review. All opinions are mine.

I struggled with this book in many ways. While I liked the idea behind Maggie the forensic expert and Jack the sort of Robin Hood of serial killers I failed to really connect to the story. I guess it is better that this is a series as it could be much more enjoyable in a different setting.

This story takes place in a newspaper printing facility. The endless details on the printing process and the dying industry of print reporting was a little dry. I would probably read another book in this series to give it another chance but this one just fell short.

It took awhile to get into the rhythm of Unpunished not because it wasn't any good, in fact its a great suspense thriller, but mostly because the main characters were introduced in a previous book, That Darkness, which started the unusual relationship between Maggie Gardiner and Jack Renner. There were a lot of nonspecific mentions about what went on during the first book that I sometimes got lost with regards to Jack and Maggie's interaction. But despite that, Unpunished really delivers with regards to solving the crime both in the procedural details plus good old fashioned investigative work. Jack and Maggie do really mesh well together as reluctant partners and if you like your thrillers gritty and a bit dark edged then Unpunished won't be a disappointment.

Thank you to NetGalley for my copy of this novel.

I found it a little difficult to get into this book with all the newspaper talk, and I liked the characters, but I do wish they had been talked about more. I finished and liked the story and where it went, but I did have a few issues. Maybe if I had read the first book, I would like this one better?

The Gardiner and Renner series starts off with a bang in Lisa Black’s second book. The series can be read as a stand-alone but I would recommend reading the first book, That Darkness, first. I have a thing for vigilantes, and Lisa Black’s series is just my thing…

It's like Dexter meets Bones, in the series about a forensic expert, Maggie Gardiner, who teams up with homicide detective, Jack Renner, who moonlights as a murdering vigilante, to solve a series of strange murders at the cities newspaper.

Combine the mystery, the interaction between the characters, and the dark tone of the book and you get a winner. If you have a thing for mysteries and want to get a little insight into print media - this is the book for you.

...selective and well-justified murder could not be his plan anymore, not since he had the misfortune to meet up with Maggie Gardiner.

This was an interesting novel from a technical standpoint. Black obviously did her homework with this one. After having read her background, I see why the detail in this story was so lifelike and spot on. Unfortunately, though, that was part of the problem I had with this story. It was entirely too detailed for my tastes. By no means was this a bad read, it just wasn’t my type of read.

Our story opens with a rather bizarre death. For whatever reason, someone found it necessary to murder a copy editor for the Cleveland Herald. This poor guy was found hanging where the newspaper is produced. Maggie, the forensic expert, was charged with finding the clues as to who did this, but it was Jack Renner’s responsibility to find out the why? And it seemed the more those two dug into this crazy murder scene, the more bodies began to stack up.

The relationship Maggie and Jack shared, I gathered, was a rather strained one. Even though this story reads as a standalone, perhaps I would have felt more at ease with this story, had I known more about these characters’ development in the first installment. This story is the second in the series. There seemed to be so much detail of situations I personally couldn’t connect to. I found myself asking more questions about the characters and that completely threw off my reading pattern and caused me to get a little frustrated. To be fair to Black, she writes very well and spins quite a tale of corruption, murder and mayhem, but again, I think it’s best that readers start with the first story before beginning this one, and then some of the characters’ behavior will probably make more sense. The ending surprised me and the story kept me pushing forward, but I found the side stories to be a bit much.

Mello & June gives Unpunished three and a half stars. It certainly wasn’t a bad book and it’s quite entertaining, if you’re the type of reader that likes extreme detail. I’m the type of reader that wants enough to let me know what’s going on, and then let my mind do the rest imagination. Unpunished went on sale as of January 31, 2017 and I do encourage you to read, but, like I mentioned, you may want to learn more about the characters from the first book before you delve into this one. Happy Reading, Intellectual Minds.

I received this ARC from netgalley.com in exchange for a review.

Book 2 in the Gardiner and Renner series. Maggie is a forensics 'tech' and tasked to find a killer in the work place of the Cleveland Herald, Renner is a detective on the police force who has taken the law in his own hands. Insert image of 'Dexter'.

This book was not as interesting as the first one in the series. The beginning of the book was crammed full of data about the newspaper industry and the printing press machines. I'm still not sure how that information actually related to the story. I got bogged down in the minutia and considered ditching the book a couple times. The tension between Maggie and Jack that was in the first book was mostly absent in this book.

2.5 stars rounded up to 3 ☆

A real page-turner

Maggie Gardner is a forensic expert and Jack Renner is a homicide cop with a dark secret.
A bizarre death of a copy editor is the first in a series of murders that will test Maggie and Jack. Maggie also knows Jack’s secret; that he is also a serial killer who specialises in bringing felons to justice in his own way.

I really enjoyed this book. Although I haven’t read the first one it didn’t matter as it is a stand-alone. It is written in the Dexter Genre but Jack is also a likeable character. The forensics were good and easy to understand and I learned quite a lot from the descriptions of ‘walking the grid’.

Here are two characters that you can empathise with and understand their motives for their actions. This great story kept me guessing to the end and I stayed up late to finish it. I will be reading more of Lisa Black’s books.

Helen

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.

This is a very entertaining mystery that keeps the reader guessing until the end. The characters are interesting and realistic with underlying tension between Jack and Maggie due to a secret they share. This adds a layer to the mystery - will someone guess their secret? Can Maggie live with this tension? And will Jack add to the reasons for Maggie's fear?

The setting of a dying newspaper industry was relevant and interesting and the author came up with some unique and different methods of murder. The identity of the killer wasn't totally unexpected and yet was a bit of a surprise. The ending seemed to wrap up much more quickly than previous pacing of the book and left me wanting more. Of course the author will likely be more than happy to provide more - - in the form of the next book in the series!

Unpunished by Lisa Black is the second book in A Gardiner and Renner Thriller series. Maggie Gardiner is called out to the death of a copy editor at the Cleveland Herald. Robert Davis was found strung up from the printing tower platform. When the victim is brought down, it is obvious that Davis was murdered. Detective Jack Renner and his partner, Riley are assigned the case. Things are a little awkward between Maggie and Jack since Maggie discovered Jack’s secret (in That Darkness). Maggie collects the forensics while Jack starts questioning newspaper employees. Soon, though, a second victim is found strung up in his living room. Jerry Wilton, Director of Advertising, for the Cleveland Herald was also strangled. Unfortunately, the killer took things one step further with Wilton (it is gruesome). It looks like someone is targeting employees of the Herald. Then Stephanie Davis, Robert’s wife, is found murdered. What did she stumble across in her husband’s belongings? Whatever Stephanie had discovered about her husband, it got her killed. Will Maggie and Jack be able to find the killer before there is another casualty.

I had high hopes for Unpunished after reading That Darkness. I like Jack Renner and Maggie Gardiner. They have such potential as main characters. Unfortunately, Lisa Black did not bring them to life in Unpunished. Maggie did find out more about Jack in this book (which I liked). But, the relationship between Maggie and Jack did not have any spark. I found Unpunished to extremely slow paced. The author put in too many details about the newspaper industry. The book felt more like a monologue about how real newspapers are dying out and are being replaced by digital papers that focus on celebrity gossip (there was more, but I started skipping pages at this point). We also find out how newspapers are run and published (which makes for a very dull mystery novel). I give Unpunished 2 out of 5 stars. The book did not have any suspense, and the killer can be identified early in the story. The author did provide good clues (if you pay very close attention). Unpunished fell short of its potential. If you do read Unpunished, I recommend reading That Darkness first. It gives you necessary background details on the characters and the relationship between Jack and Maggie.

While this book did get off to a strong start, it didn't take long to head downhill. Too much detail about the newspaper business. After slogging through all of that, my interest waned and didn't pick back up. I had to force myself to finish reading this and was overjoyed when I hit 100%. Finally!! I do not recommend this book.

Maggie Gardiner, a forensic technician with the Cleveland Police Department, is called to the local newspaper to analyze a suspected suicide. As Maggie and an officer assigned to the case, Jack Renner, examine the scene, they realize that the “suicide” of copy editor Robert Davis is actually a murder. Maggie and Jack have an uneasy working relationship, because Maggie knows Jack is a vigilante cop, killing the suspects that manage to evade prosecution, while Jack has his own information on Maggie.

This is the second book in a series, following That Darkness, which I have not read. While I was intrigued with the repeated murders at the Herald and the attention given to the forensic details, I was a bit lost regarding the history between Maggie and Jack. Even so, I found Unpunished to be an interesting read, and enjoyed learning more about the decline of print news and the battle for readers.

Unpunished (Gardiner and Renner #2) by Lisa Black, is being promoted as a mystery, suspense story, but I felt like it was more of a statement on the diminishing newspaper print industry Vs the digital model of the news presentation.

Maggie Gardiner, a forensic expert (very little forensic work done in this story), and Jack Renner, a homicide detective team up to investigate a series of suspicious deaths at a newspaper. I found the deaths of the newspaper employees to be an analogy of this dying business model.

I found the book to be drawn out, filled with too many newspaper facts, very little investigation, or forensic work. The characters were flat and uninteresting, I didn’t come away knowing any more about Maggie or Jack than when the book started. There was no edge of your seat mystery or suspense, it was more like a TV crime drama that would be wrapped up in an hour.

I think if the characters were developed more, some actual forensic work was performed, and the murders were more descriptive the book would be improved. Sadly the book didn’t grab my attention or give me a driving need to finish it so the mystery would be resolved.

I received a copy of the book from NetGalley on behalf of Kensington Publishing Corporation for an honest review. The book was published January 31st, 2017.

For me this was a 2 star read.

UNPUNISHED by Lisa Black the 2nd in the Lisa Black Gardener and Renner Series. This can be read alone, but to understand why Jack and Maggie are standoffish to one another the 1st brings that in. We have Maggie a forensic expert having to call in Jack who is a homicide detective. Who also has the side of a killer, for those who didn't pay for their crime. With a hanging at the newspaper, that seems like murder, they need to work together, and the murder count goes up.
Not having read the first in the series, nor being familiar with Lisa writing this was different. Good plot, good detail on the newspaper angle. She doesn't disappoint in giving you a good murder.
Given ARC by Net Galley for my voluntary review and my honest opinion.

I dragged my feet getting into this. I didn't really have a background for the relationship between Gardiner and Renner. Once I figured that out, I could not put it down. I think I was hooked equal parts by the plot of the story and the exploration of the status of print media. Looking forward to the first book "That Darkness". I have also researched the author and found several other series I want to try.Based on style I think Lisa Black is a new favorite of mine.