This book was really good. I didn’t realize it was a part of a series but I will definitely go back and read the other ones.

I read this without knowing this is the second in a series. I will be reading the first book, Dead Certain! A great legal thriller.

A good read, although I would have preferred to read the sequel in order. I like to get to know the characters from the very start of their existence. I found it interesting that each chapter was written in the first person and changed from character to character. I will definitely go back to read the earlier books and then keep up to date with the series. A good legal drama.

I received an ARC of this book, so I read it without knowing that it was a sequel. I enjoyed it very much - so much, in fact, that I immediately purchased the first book when I finished. Even reading it backwards this way, I loved the characters and the storyline. The writing was interesting and engaging without being over the top. I am now a fan of Mitzner's work! I will be seeking out more books by him.

Prosecuting comes with the occupational hazard of seeing people actually become their worst selves. On some level, I always knew that would someday be true of me too.

A sequel of Dead Certain, Ella Broden has stepped away from the prosecuting table and is now in front of a different audience. Living her fantasy of Cassidy. A singer by night that is nothing like prosecutor Ella Broden by day. After her sister's death, she takes a step back. She is retrospective and with the help of her love interest detective Gabriel, he has become her North Star in all the confusion of who she is, what she wants and what truly matters.

When her mentor Lauren Wright invites Ella and Gabriel to dinner with her and her husband, Ella is excited and hopeful that Lauren will meet Gabriel. A step forward to right what has gone terribly wrong with the murder of her sister. Unbeknownst to Ella, this is the last time she will see Lauren. Lauren is brutally murdered. Lauren's deputy Dana Goodwin and Gabriel team up to gather evidence of the crime.

Dana Goodwin working relationship with Lauren Wright has been more of a partnership then a boss and employee. Dana Goodwin has reason to bring Lauren's killer to justice. Working with Gabriel, the evidence brings up a double life of Lauren Wright and the twists and turns begin.

The narration is done with Dana and Ella. Each voice is compelling. Dana and her husband's relationship was a relationship of convenience for her but her husband's devotion to her was unnerving. Her relationship to her son was her north star and seemed to be the driving force of what mattered. (at least in her own mind). Her actions later speak differently.

With the death of her mentor, Ella once again come to the table of justice. For her friend and for herself.

A Special Thank You to Thomas & Mercer and Netgalley for the ARC and the opportunity to post an honest review.

After reading this author’s four previous books Mitzner became one of my "don't miss" authors, and so I was very pleased to be given an advance copy of Never Goodbye (the sequel to Dead Certain) by NetGalley and the publisher to review.

Having finished Never Goodbye, my overall opinion is that Mitzner continues his streak of writing credible, well-paced, attention-holding thrillers/mysteries, with well-developed characters.

Having said that, while I consider Never Goodbye to be a good read, it was my least favorite of this author’s four previous books, each of which I consider to be excellent or very good books.

The primary reason for my three star rating of Never Goodbye is that despite Mitzner's best efforts to keep you guessing about who the killer is, I was able to guess who it was almost immediately after the arrest of the character arrested for the crime (although I didn't really know WHY until much later). I think part of my ability to figure out who the real murderer is stems from my now being very familiar with Mitzner’s style of writing, in which the person who either “seems too good to be true “ or had been a minor figure in the story until near the end of the book turns out to be the actual killer. The second factor for my overall rating is that a few of the subplots in Never Goodbye were intentionally left unresolved, since the author plans to write (at least) a third book featuring the main character. The third factor was the plot's narrative, which regularly shifted between some key characters, at times became a little hard to follow.

#NeverGoodbye # Net Galley

I understand this author hasn't done a sequel before. I am so happy he did! This was an excellent mystery and awesome legal story. Quickly becoming one of my favorite writers!

Never Goodbye is a genre bending tale of suspense that will capture your attention with the character development in the beginning and then take you on a legal thrilling ride at the end. The story is told from dual points of view: Ella/Cassidy (I know that seems confusing but it isn’t) and Dana, both prosecutors, who are grappling with the murder of their mentor/friend Lauren. Ultimately, Dana is arrested for the murder and Ella is tasked with prosecuting the case. However, prior to this point in the story, Mitzner does a superb job of creating characters in which you become well invested. Having never read any of his previous novels, I didn’t realize that he wrote legal thrillers and I assumed this was going to be a book about these women, a narrative tale, not a legal one. It was a surprise when the book went off in that direction. In addition, Ella’s boyfriend is the lead cop investigating the murder so this is a bit like the television show, Law and Order, with the characters and investigation up front and the courtroom drama in the end. It works and it works very well. What works even better is the ending! Do not be prepared for a neat and tidy wrap because there is not one. Like many things in life and most court cases in the real world, there is no resolute ending in this case. The book is not a cliff-hanger but there is no nice, pat finale in the case either. This actually made me enjoy the book more, not less.

Never Goodbye is a sequel to Mitzner's very popular book, Dead Certain. I didn’t realize this when I was offered the book for review. There are references to the first book and the characters, of course, are the same but this could be a stand-alone if you choose. It certainly didn’t detract from the enjoyment of the story for me and I doubt it will for you either. I definitely will read the first one now and will pick up more books by this author.  If you like crime fiction, legal thrillers or books with really good character development then this is a book for you!
Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book for review.

I am a fan of the authors writing and have read the previous book in this series. I enjoy legal thrillers and find his writing masterfully written and always enjoyable. This new book does not disappoint .
Never Goodbye is the sequel to Dead Certain, by Adam Mitzner. I suggest reading both books, since they are both so good.
Former prosecutor, Ella is back, singing in a club several nights a week, and in a serious relationship with Gabriel, the detective that worked to solve her sister's murder. In this book, someone else close to Ella is murdered, causing her to experience her feelings of grief and rage again after two losses so close together. She is asked to be special prosecutor on the trial of the person who is accused of murdering her former boss. She does not hesitate to stop back into the legal arena.
I found the authors writing about the trial enthralling and enjoyable to read. There is evidence submitted that will shock the reader with its legal bounds. The trial is written in such a way that it is interesting and fun to read to any reader.
This is a winning series by the author. If you enjoy legal thrillers you will love his writing. The courtroom drama is at its best here. I was unable to put this book down until the last page. A highly enjoyable read !
i look forward to the next in series. Thank you for the ARC which does not influence my review.

7 stars- I have read several of Adam's books and this one did not disappoint at all. Every page kept me at the edge of my seat. There were several twists in the book that I did not see coming at all and I loved that. This book was chuck full of so many suspenseful scenes and the descriptive words used made it better. Thank you for allowing me to write about this book.

In this sequel to Dead Certain, Adam Mitzner continues to bring his real life expertise and knowledge to bear to the benefit of the reader.
Ella Broden, who ended up killing her sisters murderer in Dead Certain returns to the DA’s office as a special prosecutor to prosecute to murderer of Lauren bureau chief of Special Victims in the DA’s office, her former mentor and boss. Ella had left as Lauren’s deputy to pursue a career a singer, a career that had her being a standout opening act, albeit in a small establishment.
Ella has been dating police

Book Review: Never Goodbye by Adam Mitzner

A Manhattan ADA, with PTSD from a personal tragedy, abandons her career, pursues her passion as a night club singer, climbs to near club stardom with her first composition "Never Goodbye", then gets pulled back in as special prosecutor. Her replacement ADA gets into a tryst with the boss who is murdered. It's a well-written humdrum of a whodunit, a bit over-cliched. "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!" - Michael Corleone.

The severe emotional transformation of one who precipitously gives up a stressful legal career, etches a relatively easy life with a non-living wage as a singer in a bar, then ever so eagerly steps back into white-hot limelight as an ill-prepared, out-of-focus prosecutor in a high profile, fast-tracked capital murder case, isn't convincingly developed.

The sparkling gem, a tour de force of the author's legal prowess, is found in the astute depiction of legal techniques as in those which may be found in cases currently foremost in the public eye, and in deliberations and dissections of the nuances and the letter of the law as applied to relevant contemporary legal issues, i.e. the battle between Apple and the federal government over the unlocking of iPhones -specifically the phone of Syed Farook, the San Bernardino shooter, the admissibility of text messages as evidence, judicial decisions under the dictate of stare decisis, and so forth.

The narrative is at times so scholarly, readers such as myself, may mark the Kindle version up with so many highlights it'd resemble one dogeared back in college, except digital.

"It's important that you not tell me anything that I haven't asked. I don't want you to taint me with information that makes a particular defense outside the ethical boundaries.... In other words, he is open to my committing perjury so long as he's not guilty of suborning it."

"Good. That, in a nutshell, is what makes your case triable: the age-old question of "why"."

"If you go on the Internet, you see all sorts of theories. Some articles claim that Farook's cell phone was cracked by freelance hackers. Others say that Cellebrite did it. The cost of the work is also hotly debated... the FBI director at the time said that it cost more than his entire salary for the remaining years of his tenure, which would be in excess of a million dollars... I know how we do it. And I know it isn't cheap, but it doesn't cost a million dollars either."

And then:

"This is indeed an interesting issue... as technology advances, the rules of evidence have to advance as well, or else they will become obsolete... Indeed, the text message at issue here is the lynchpin of the prosecution's case. So much so that excluding it from evidence could well result in a directed verdict, and double jeopardy having already attached, the prosecution would have no right to appeal my ruling. By contrast, admitting the text message will preserve this issue for the appellate courts to consider. Of course, that only occurs in the event of a guilty verdict, but if acquitted even with the admission of this text message, then ruling it admissible obviously had no prejudice to the defense. And so my ruling might be considered either Solomonic or cowardly, depending on your point of view. I will accept the text into evidence, and thereby preserve this issue for appellate review... I will, however, give the defense latitude to maintain its argument that someone other than the defendant could have authored those texts, and the jury is free to acquit on that basis."

Textbook perfect.

Same sex trysts may not appeal to everyone, and the legal gems are mostly in the last third of the book. And although the technique is put to good use, I'm not a big fan of alternating first person narratives. Nonetheless, a pleasure to read.

Review based on an advance reading copy presented by NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer.

There is a book that comes before this one but I was able to understand all the events and how the characters related to one another with no problem without having read it. There is a well-written plot with some twists and turns and the characters are developed thoroughly. I received a copy of this book via NetGalley.

Never Godbye
By Adam Mitzner

4 Stars

Surprisingly engaging mystery, that doesn’t give away the ending until the end.

Both the characters and the plots were well developed, and believable. Although the ending had an interesting twist.

The story featuring lawyer turned singer turned lawyer Ella Broden as she adjusts to life and is brought back to deal out justice to her mentors murder.
Other characters Dana Goodwin a the newly appointed deputy chief in the Special Victims Bureau, is dealing with her own demons and issues in her professional and personal life.
Connecting the two women is Ella’s boyfriend, Gabriel Velasquez, who has teamed up with Dana to investigate the murder.
Although the story is quick and easy to read, it is probably a little too long.

#NeverGoodbye #NetGalley

Are you looking for a really good legal thriller? Then queue this one up and prepare yourself for a dizzying whirl of a ride! Better yet, read the first book featuring one of the characters (this is a sequel -- which I did not know and I am so sorry to have missed out) titled DEAD CERTAIN. And a little endnote tells me that there may be another one. Definitely for you if you're a fan of Law and Order or any of the other crime dramas featuring special victims.

It doesn't get much better than this -- lies, secrets, betrayal and great courtroom action with all the authentic legalese that only an author who knows it can tell it. I loved the details! This author is new to me, but I intend to rectify that by going to the backlist.

"The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law"

Ella Broden, former sex crimes prosecutor with the Manhattan DA's office, now lounge club singer, is in therapy recovering from the fallout after the murder of her younger sister. She's trying to get her life back together and is working on her relationship with Lieutenant Gabriel Velasquez of the NYPD.
Though she misses the practice of law, she needs this break.

Dana Goodwin has Ella's old job and is working under the tutelage of Lauren Wright, the chief of the Special Victims Bureau. Dana is married to Stuart and they have a 5-year-old son. Dana loves her new job and gets some information that allows her to dream of taking over as head of the office soon.

But -- NO SPOILERS -- things change as an explosion of events dramatically shift everything and this puts the two women at odds with each other. In the courtroom. I don't want to say any more and hope that you enjoy the twists and turns of this story as much as I did!

I can't wait for more! Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for this e-book ARC to read and review.

After reading Dead Certain only a week ago, I was thrilled to dive into its sequel Never Goodbye, which I requested from NetGalley a few weeks ago. Ella Broden was again the main character in this legal crime thriller alongside a new character, Dana Goodwin.

First things first: You don't necessarily need to read Dead Certain in order to understand Never Goodbye. Obviously the events of the previous novel are mentioned here but they only play a minor role and are explained throughout the story when it was necessary. If you want to learn about the beginning of Ella Broden's story anyway, feel free to pick up Dead Certain first.

As in the previous novel, I enjoyed the short chapters here as well. They add to a faster pace and want to make you read the book even quicker.
Never Goodbye was definitely heavy on the legal parts, which was slightly different than in Dead Certain. Nevertheless, the legal parts were interesting but more importantly comprehensible because Adam Mitzner, an attorney himself, made it his mission to explain legal terms, legal phrases and legal proceedings to us non-readers.

The narrative alternated between the first person POV of Ella and the first person of Dana which I enjoyed. However, I had the feeling that the book was more about Dana than about Ella and Dana. Even though Ella had her own POV and the reader found out a lot about what she has been up to after her sister's murder six months ago, she seemed to play the role of a secondary character in my opinion.

I don't know what I expected after reading the blurb to be honest, but I had expected the story to go in a different direction. I'm not saying this to downgrade the story or the author himself because the storyline was great and well plotted. It's just a fact that I realized while reading the book.
Another thing I didn't expect was the ending of the book. It was unusual to say the least but I am really glad he ended it this way. At first I couldn't quite understand it because it was not fair in my opinion. But after reading the reasoning at the end of the book it makes total sense.

As much as I was looking forward to this sequel, it didn't quite live up to my expectations. It was very slow at times and it seemed like the story was not making any progress. Also, I figured out the plot twist very early on. Call it a hunch, but I was right.
Nevertheless, Never Goodbye is a nice and solid read which is why I give it three stars.

Well done, with lots of twists and turns and the opportunity to see the story from two sides- Dana and Ella. Ella's out of the law and singing in clubs after serious trauma over the death of her sister but she's pulled back in. Who really murdered Lauren? Was it Dana, Ella's friend and successor at the Special Victims Bureau? This is the sort of novel that's hard to review because of spoilers but be clear that those secrets and lies will come back. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. You don't need to have read the first book to appreciate this one- the back story of Ella and Gabriel is clear early on.

Never Goodbye is the sequel to Dead Certain, by Adam Mitzner. You can read Never Goodbye without having read it's predecessor without a problem but I suggest reading both books, since they are both so good. Former prosecutor, Ella, is back, singing in a club several nights a week, and in a serious relationship with Gabriel, the detective that worked to solve her sister's murder. In this book, someone else close to Ella is murdered, causing her to feel fragile after two losses so close together. While dealing with those feelings, she is asked to be special prosecutor on the trial of the person who is accused of murdering her former boss.

The story is told in Ella's voice and in the voice of the woman who replaced her at her old DA job. I enjoyed reading both viewpoints and getting to see Ella and Gabriel through someone else's eyes. I look forward to reading the third book in this series, which comes out next year.

Thanks to Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for this ARC.

Mr. Mitzner never fails in providing the reader with a well scripted, researched and plausible story. I always enjoy his books. This latest maintains the same quality of enjoyment and insight into the legal system.
Highly recommend.

Ella Broden is back, and just when you thought she'd never see the inside of a courtroom again, she gets called back to practice her special skills in a highly unusual case as her former boss is found murdered. Was it the lover, the husband, or a revenge-seeking felon who promised to get even. The author uses the thoughts and words of two main characters to give a unique double first-person telling of the tale. Well worth reading.