Forensic investigator Maggie Gardiner has been partnered once again with Detective Jack Renner, tasked with photographing the scene of a horrific murder. The victim, Joanna Moorehouse, was the founder of Sterling Financial, a loan origination company that specialized in sub-prime loans. At the time of Joanna's death, she was in the process of merging with another company. Although the investigators had more questions than answers after the terrible murder, will the pieces of the puzzle come together when more victims are discovered?

Perish is the third novel featuring Gardiner and Renner. I was not blown away by this book, as the author got too bogged down in the financial details. The nature of Joanna's business, though central to the plot, was explained in entirely too much detail for my liking. The other issue that I had with the novel is regarding Detective Jack Renner. Though his lack of moral character is a foil to Maggie's, I am not a fan. For these reasons, I would be hesitant to recommend Perish to other readers.

Disclaimer: I was given an Advanced Reader's Copy of Perish via NetGalley and the publisher, Kensington Books. The choice to review this book was my own.

Maggie Gardner, forensics expert, is called to a murder scene. She needs to investigate the brutal murder of Joanna Moorehouse, the founder of Sterling Financial. There is not a lot of evidence to suggest who could have killed Joanna and at the same time, there is little that Maggie can glean from the home about Joanna the person.

Detective Jack Renner is also on the scene of the crime. He and Maggie decide that to understand Joanna and hopefully find the killer they need to learn more about Sterling Financial and who would stand to gain by Joanna’s death.

It’s not easy to work with Renner as Maggie knows more about him than anyone else. As both work on the investigation another victim is found. On top of that, Maggie’s ex-husband who is also on the police force, is closing in on another case that could have dire consequences for Renner and Maggie. Can she re-direct his attention while also reminding Renner to uphold their agreement?

There’s some great tension between the main characters and like the previous book in this series, the author does her research well but sometimes gets a bit bogged down in the details. In this case, for example there is a lot more about financial crime details that I don’t think was necessary to advance the plot. One of the things that keeps me coming back to this series is the ever-present question of will Jack Renner’s secret be revealed and what will Maggie do. It’ll be interesting to see what the author has instore for these two.

This is book 3 of the Gardiner and Renner series. Maggie Gardiner is a forensic expert and Jack Renner is a homicide detective. Both of them hold a dark secret that no one else but them knows and if the secrets were revealed there lives would be forever changed. They are called to investigate the murder and evisceration of Joanna Moorehouse, owner and head of Sterling Financial. There is no evidence but a single partial print, no blood smears, DNA or any other evidence. Their investigation into Sterling Financial reveals the firm's predatory mortgage lending practices and an off-shore account. Sterling is also about to be bought out by a another firm. Did someone within the company kill her or did she betray one too many customers?
This story had great writing and created more tension and mystery as the story evolved. While I appreciated the author's dedication to researching all aspects of the lending market and it's role in the financial crisis of 2008, the level of detailed information did become tedious after a while. Character development was good and Gardner and Renner work well together. Black's Moorehouse character is unlikeable at best, a victim you really don't feel sorry for. The ending was also not what I expected.
This was my first book by this author and I would definitely read more of this series. Thank you to Net Galley and the author for an ARC of the novel.

Another winner from Lis Perishr. Nicely plotted and a great ending. Don't miss any of these books by this author.
Very satisfying.

I could not get into this book as much as I could the rest of the series and I could not finish it.

Thank you to net galley, the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read this book in return for my honest opinion.

I was excited to receive this book, I have read many of the author’s books. I had high hopes for this book, and I am happy to say I really liked this book. This may not have been one of her best books, I did find there was way too much financial information in there for me, but it was very informative and I enjoyed learning some of it. The characters of Maggie and Jack, as always are fantastic. I love seeing the continued exploration of their relationship, as it is, and as confusing as it is for both of them. I am really interested to see where these characters will go in the next book and what type of relationship they will eventually have in the future.

All in all, this was a thrilling book, there were lots of twists and turns, and I was surprised at the ending for sure. Can’t wait for the next book.

This is the third book in the Gardner and Renner series but the first one I have read.I found there was enough background information on the lead characters but it is preferable to start with book one. Gardner is a forensic expert and Renner a homicide detective. They are called to the brutal murder scene of Joanna Moorehouse a financial expert and the investigation begins. The book is well written but there was too much focus on the financial information although the plot flowed well enough. In hindsight, read book one first but I give this one four stars. Thanks to Net Galley for my copy. I reviewed on Amazon, Goodreads and Facebook.

Maggie Gardiner is back in her expert role of forensic scientist in Black's latest novel. She is once again involved in solving a mystery finding who is murdering women tied to Sterling Financial. Not a clue is left behind and she once again seeks the help of Homicide Detective, and vigilante, Jack Renner. Black shares a great deal of financial knowledge, she's done her research, on the 2008 financial crisis and the mortgage industry. The question is how is it all tied together. Put your financial cap on and be ready to solve the mystery in the latest Gardiner story.

Lisa Black definitely does a deep dive into her subject, and to make it a little more interesting, throws a murder or three in, and then figures that she needs to tie everything up before her fans start to revolt. “Perish” is no different – only this time, it is in the financial world of home mortgages instead of the newspaper publishing world where her last set of bodies were found.

Ten years of crime scene work has given Maggie Gardener a unique view of the world. When called to process the body of Joanna Morehouse, her curiosity is piqued when she realizes that this woman is the CEO of Sterling Financial and has roughly $600m in her own personal bank account. Cleveland, Ohio is not usually a hot bed of murder yet each time a body shows up, her first thoughts go to Jack Renner, a homicide detective that holds Maggie’s secrets and in turn, she holds his. They are both walking a precarious tightrope that will result in each other’s demise.

Sterling Financial was a predatory lender with shady business practices. When homes are stolen and secret accounts are found, there is an endless stream of people, in both her office and the demonstrators at her front door that wanted Joanna dead. Yet there was something very personal in her killing and the deaths did not stop with her. Now three women in three days from Sterling are dead, all murdered the same way and all women have the same general appearance. Unfortunately, Maggie has the same look and Jack needs to get to her before the killer can strike again.

Lisa Black throws everything into the pot with this one and yet the ending comes up short. It reads as if the author was so determined to shine a bright light on the shenanigans of mortgage lenders that she had forgotten that there was a murderer at large and needed to hurry up and name a suspect that she had literally pulled out of thin air.

Really like this series and this one, the third in the series, is an excellent addition.

We are back with our duo, forensic expert Maggie Gardner and homicide detective Jack Renner.

Here Maggie is called to a murder scene in the front room of a mansion where a young woman has been brutally murdered, stabbed and hacked to death. There are no clues at the crime scene, no DNA, no sign of a break in, but they soon discover the woman is Joanna Moorehouse, founder of Sterling financial. As Jack and Maggie contact and visit Sterling they enter the world of shady financial dealings and realize that any number of Joanna’s associates could be the killer. As they delve deeper, they find out all about Sterling and it’s dodgy dealings in the mortgage market, a potential merger with a much bigger player and huge sums of money missing.
When a near identical murder takes place soon after, they realize that they have very few leads to follow and have to get to the bottom of all Sterlings dealings to hopefully come up with a suspect for the murders.

I really enjoyed this one. I really like Lisa Blacks writing style. You get the impression that she does huge research on her books before putting pen to paper and they are detail heavy. Maggie and Jack are a great pair with plenty of tension between them due to their past and the secrets they both hold(a constant story arc throughout the series).

The investigations rely more on a structured approach of investigating the leads, ruling them out and moving on to the next one, rather than perhaps the thrills and spills of other novels. This is in no way a criticism and in fact is a breath of fresh air. It somehow makes the stories and investigations feel more realistic. The reading is excellent throughout. I can imagine the fine details of the financial world and all the abbreviations may irritate some readers after a while( I did lose track of what was what occasionally) but I didn’t mind it at all and again gave it that authentic feeling.

The ending for me was a little weak and felt a little rushed, perhaps my only real criticism of the book. It didn’t stop me from enjoying the book immensely though and I look forward to and will be keeping an eye out for the next addition in the series.

Thanks to NetGalley, Kensington Books and Lisa Black for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I love this Dexter-like series with Jack the vigilante cop who kills bad guys (and girls) that he believes will beat the justice system and get away with their crimes. I also love the awkward relationship he has with Maggie the forensic scientist who knows what he's up to, but can't do anything about it without incriminating herself. This was an intriguing storyline with an interesting twist at the end reminding you how important it is for cops to keep an open mind when it comes to motive.

Perish by Lisa Black is a highly recommended police procedural/thriller and the third in the series featuring forensic expert Maggie Gardiner and homicide detective Jack Renner.

Joanna Moorehouse, owner and founder of Sterling Financial, is found brutally murdered in her mansion on the outskirts of Cleveland. Her body is found stabbed and gutted on the marble floors in the living room. The pristine home shows no blood trail, no fingerprints, no trace of the killer's ingress or egress from the murder scene. It also contains few clues to any personal life of Moorehouse. Is the brutal murder due to a hatred of Moorehouse, or does it have something to do with her business? And what about her overseas bank account containing an unbelievably high balance?

While Maggie is struggling with the lack of trace evidence, Detectives Jack Renner and Thomas Riley are doing their best to investigate the murder, and it appears that corrupt practices might have something to do with it. Moorehouse’s employees at Sterling Financial are all business. None of the staff were friends or interacted socially with Moorehouse. The one exception might be Jeremy Mearan, who was sleeping with her. There other suspects at Sterling itself, a crooked predatory mortgage lender where everyone is out to make huge bonuses while ignoring the group of protestors outside the building. Sterling is also about to be bought out by another company, so tension is running high at the business.

When another woman is murdered in the identical way, it becomes clear that more is going on than Maggie or the detectives realize. They need to find out why these women were murdered and who would benefit from their demise. It might be tied into the complicated and suspect practices of subprime lending and the anticipated resulting credit default by consumers, but would that be a reason to kill?

Perish features the excellent writing that I expect from Black. The plot flows smoothly; the descriptions are perfectly captured. The tension mounts incrementally as the investigation proceeds and more information is uncovered and clues are followed. Admittedly, the financial information does become a wee-bit tiring after a while, but it also provides an education on why the mortgage lending crisis of 2008 occurred and a solid basis for the investigation.

Readers of the series will know the history of Maggie Gardiner and Jack Renner. Although their background isn't completely explained here, new readers are provided with enough information to understand that there is a backstory, and comprehend the significance of their actions, and the quandary both characters face. It does mean that they will not appear to be quite as well-developed as characters if this is your introduction to them. (I felt the same starting with the second book, Unpunished, but this time I knew some of the backstory and felt more comfortable with the characters.) The investigation is solid, however, and that will please new and old fans of the series. I'm looking forward to the next novel featuring Gardiner and Renner, Suffer the Children, as clues in this one point to some major developments.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Kensington Publishing via Netgalley.
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How can someone kill, actually eviscerate a body and not leave any blood evidence? This is the scene in the cold, lavish mansion of Joanna Morehouse, owner of Sterling Financial. No bloody footprints, no smears on doorknobs, no blood in the drain. Nothing but a single bloody partial print which isn’t producing any results from AFIS. This is what confronts Cleveland Forensic Specialist Maggie Gardiner. Confronting her detective counterparts, Renner and Riley are the multitude of the masses in the way of suspects.
The license to print money is once again returning to financing the housing market, and Sterling Financial seems to be a leader in shady practices. The money and a possible sale, is garnering exceptional levels of hatred from Joanna's co-workers. Oh yeah, lets not forget the protesters outside the doors who can hate with the best, but for much better reasons.
Very soon after Renner and Riley begin to formulate a narrative other murders occur, bringing them back almost to the beginning.
Maggie Gardiner and Jack Renner continue to work very well together while continuing their tenuous dance of death. Each had the power to destroy the other, but Jack Renner holds the upper hand, or seems to. Two previous books detail their past working relationship. I will leave it Perish, not this review to explain their dance macabre.
There are two other threads weaving their way through this book, one a problem where Jack provides the solution, the other problem where the solution is Renner himself. In a moment of careless speech he might have given Maggie’s ex-husband, Det. Rick Gardiner, the means to solve for X. So I will be looking forward to book four.
After the first murder, I will admit to skimming the other descriptions of the eviscerated bodies. That’s how good Lisa Black is with her writing and descriptive powers. Her skills aren’t just limited to blood and guts. I felt every shard of glass in Maggie’s arm, every cold mausoleum of a room of the Morehouse mansion, and every moment of grief.
Maybe they were better developed in the previous books, but I just really couldn’t get a good feel for either Jack or Maggie. I could barely provide a description of them. Even working with one them durn new-fangled(sic)computer programs.
I think I might be in the minority when I say how much I enjoyed Lisa Blacks clear explanation of the financial meltdowns from ten years ago. She made a very difficult subject easier to understand with a soupçon of warning for “déjà vu all over again.”
This was a terrific police procedural without any artificial twists or turns. The leads are all there, it just takes a dangerously long time for the detectives to get there; and the readers.
Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

It was a interesting novel that was partly about choices.

Perish by Lisa Black
Gardiner and Renner #3

Mixed feelings on this one…

Liked:
*The truce/tension between Gardiner & Renner
*The forensics
*The unraveling of the mystery

Disliked:
*The deadly dull details of finances,
*Cheating mortgage companies and corrupt people working for the company
*The final tie-in of perhaps why the serial killer was killing

This series is a good one in general but the author does like to educate and if the reader is not into what the topic being taught is they may, as I did, skip over quite a bit that does not pertain to the murder-mystery and relationship between Gardiner & Renner. In some ways I would like for the two main characters to bond or develop a relationship that is not tense but…that would take many books, I think.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Books – This is my honest review.

3-4 Stars

Who killed Joanna and why? You'll learn a lot about the mortgage business in this neatly written procedural that you can easily read as a standalone even though it's the third in a series. Some might find the financial details overwhelming but they're very educational and, I think, nicely explanatory of a complex situation. Maggie and Jack work together well, with a fair amount of good repartee. This twists a bit (I didn't guess) and beware of the violence toward women but if you like the genre, you'll like this one. Thanks to net galley for the ARC. Recommend to those looking for a murder mystery with a topical plot line.

Perish by Lisa Black is the third book in the Gardiner and Renner series. The series are crime thriller reads featuring forensic expert Maggie Gardner and homicide detective Jack Renner. Each book in the series is a new crime/murder to solve for the duo and can be read as standalones but there is an ongoing story line in the character development that carries over from book to book so it’s best to read the series from the beginning for full understanding.

While Perish wasn’t my favorite of the series so far it was still a very solid read and addition to the series. The book begins with Maggie at a crime scene of the brutal murder of Joanna Moorehouse, the founder of Sterling Financial. The case leads to investigating everyone in Joanna’s life to find her killer as the investigators follow the clues from one lead to the next.

Really the only thing bringing my rating down a bit with this installment of the series was I felt it tended to get a bit weighted down with the financial details of the story. With the murder victim coming from that background the investigation leads to a lot of digging into the financial industry which could get a touch boring here and there to me personally.

As usual though it sounded like the author had her facts straight in those details as it does with the details of investigating such a brutal crime giving the book a realistic feel. I will definitely continue to be interest in continuing the series or other books by this author in the future.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Perish – Lisa Black

I received this novel as an ARC, in exchange for an objective review. This is book 3 in a three-part series, and I have not (yet) read the other two. First off, I’d suggest reading them in their proper order. As a reader new to the characters, it became readily apparent that I’d missed some significant details, reveals, and interactions between these characters in the prior novels. However, if read as a stand-alone, the missing details are implied and become clearer as the story progresses.

Maggie Gardiner is a forensic scientist who works for the Cleveland PD. Jack Renner is a homicide detective, whom Maggie works closely with, as they investigate crime scenes. However, only known to Maggie, (presumably due to the events of the prior novels) is the fact that Jack has some “Dexter-like” qualities, which he utilizes on occasion to ensure that the proper suspect is stopped however necessary.

As this story unfolds, Maggie & Jack are called to an apparent homicide in a wealthy district in town. As the investigation unfolds, their victim is discovered to be the owner of a less than honest financial company, specializing in predatory loans, complete with falsified paperwork and creative bookkeeping. When a second woman from the office is found killed in a similar fashion, the investigation shifts to those who have lost homes or have expressed outrage and vengeance towards the company. When a third victim is discovered, also with a link to the company - but as an investigator of the company itself - the detectives are stymied as to who might have anything to gain by the killings., As the investigation continues, Maggie finds herself in the crosshairs of a killer – but is it an unknown entity – or someone close to her wanting to preserve her silence???

I struggled a bit with the first third of the book, as I am not financially minded at all, and much of the ‘set-up’ of the story had to do with explanations of mortgage lending, CDO’s, predatory lending, variable rates, etc. While I found that to be a bit dry, I also learned a lot, and plan to try to learn some more. (The author also includes a list of her references in the acknowledgements.) Once those explanations are made (to the detectives) which sets up motive for the investigation, I could not put the book down.

A good read, and I will be reading the two prior books as well to gain more insight into this duo!!

While this was an enjoyable story there were too many times my eyes glazed over at the amount of financial information. This lead to me skipping parts of the book.

Whilst I have not read any of Lisa Black's books before, I really enjoyed this one although it felt that I should have read the previous books featuring forensic detective Maggie Gardiner. As an avid Scarpetta fan I was expecting a bit of the same but Lisa Black exceeded my expectations. Well described (but gory), death scenes and then we enter the realms of high finance for suspects etc. I cannot say the book really impressed me as at times it was formulaic, but I see she has written other series and I will look forward to this.