FBI Agent Brandon Fisher, along with his team is called in to investigate the sniper shooting of a prominent lawyer. They are to determine if the lawyer was targeted. They talk to family, friends, co-workers, supervisors, hotel employees .. no one is talking. No one wants to say anything bad or embarrassing about the lawyer.

The FBI hadn’t anticipated previous victims stretching from coast to coast. Brandon and his team are suffering jet lag as they fly to various parts of the country looking for something that ties all the victims together. All are married men, in their 50s, all killed by one shot directly to the heart, all done by the same killer.
They have a theory on motive, one that hits pretty close to home for Brandon. He needs to set aside his personal thoughts and regrets in order to catch the sniper before the killer takes another victim.

The story is told from different points of view ... those of the investigators and then one of the sniper. There's no chapter indication of who is speaking, so I had to piece it together as I went along. That was a little distracting, but not enough to make me want to discontinue reading. There's lots of action from the get-go, a lot of investigative procedures, and several possible suspects. The ending was a surprise.

Many thanks to the author / Hibbert & Stiles Publishing / Netgalley for the digital copy of this crime fiction. Read and reviewed voluntarily, the opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

Past Deeds is a police procedural and the eighth book in the Brandon Fisher FBI Thriller series by Carolyn Arnold. When a prosecuting attorney is shot by a sniper in Arlington, Virginia, the FBI is called in. Brandon Fisher and his team with the Behavioral Analysis Unit are part of the investigation, which will take some of them on a trail to New Mexico and California.

Typically, this is one of my favorite kind of book. However, Past Deeds didn’t live up to my expectations at all. The FBI agents are unlikable, arrogant, rude, temperamental, and unprofessional. They make personal jabs at each other, are reactionary when their ideas or comments are questioned, and they seem to be more focused on their own feelings and problems than they are with the job at hand. While the story itself is fairly well-plotted, I had a hard time dealing with the personalities as well as the multiple points of view. Often, I had to stop and remind myself who was speaking. After a while that became fairly annoying and certainly did nothing to enhance my enjoyment of the book.

Since I’ve read books in another series by this author and enjoyed them quite a bit, I’m surprised that this book was so disappointing. I don’t believe I’ll be reading any more of this series.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book for review.

Special Agent Brandon Fisher of the FBI's BAU team investigates the sniper death of a prosecuting attorney in Arlington, VA.

That's a bit misleading, as Fisher is not the AIC (Agent in Charge), but rather a member of the team under Jack Harper, who is the AIC and who I found to be both unlikable and annoying. This book is labeled a Brandon Fisher book, though, and we spend a lot of time in his head as we do in the head of Kelly Marsh, formerly Miami-Dade PD and who is (based on us getting hit over the head with it multiple times) new to the team.

Darrell Reid is killed by a sniper as he's leaving a residential building. For some reason that isn't made entirely clear, the BAU is called. But out they roll, to the scene. It's pretty difficult to me that they would be, since at this point, there's a single victim. It's a real "it's in the script moment", to be honest.

In any case, back at the BAU, there's the requisite computer geek who can pry records out of any system, anywhere, and soon it becomes clear there are three other killings, in other states, that match this particular one. The team splits up, with Jack and Kelly staying in Virginia, and Brandon and Paige (with whom he apparently slept with in a previous book) sent out west to revisit the previous killings to see what links they can find.

From there, it's a standard procedural whodunit, with the agents going around to scenes, interviewing people, checking for video, and so on, until they make the connection and close in for the arrest.

I can say it's reasonably well written, although there is more than one character who says "In the least" instead of "At the least" - a quirk of the writer, perhaps. I'm afraid I didn't really care for any of the BAU agents. Jack's an asshole (in my opinion), and maybe I just think that because I've not read the seven books in the series before this. Kelly does way too much second guessing of herself instead of just realizing Jack is an asshole, making her feel small. Brandon is wishy-washy and annoying, constantly going back to the time he and Paige slept together while he was still married, as if one, he's still married to his wife and two, he doesn't have a new girlfriend. Paige was just eh, she's there and throws in her two cents now and again, although she nearly gets herself and Brandon killed by an oncoming vehicle because she's zoned out, thinking about her and Brandon. The characters were cookie cutter and could be swapped out in any other book of this type without a beat being missed by anyone.

That said, the whydunnit was okay, and the sniper clearly nuts but doing the killing from what in her mind is a rock solid foundation. The fact that not one agent guessed at what the killer was going to do at the end of the book was disappointing, considering that they had all the information on the killer and certainly could have done a profile on that. That they didn't says to me they may not be very good at their jobs.

There are some gratuitous "thank you for your service"s and a short commentary by Kelly on providing for veterans after they've exited the services. Neither did anything for the book or the characters.

Will I pick up earlier books in this series? Unlikely. But if you like Criminal Minds the show, you'll probably enjoy this much more than I did.

Three stars out of five.

Thanks to NetGalley and Hibbert & Stiles for the advance copy.

Whenever I am in the mood for a fast-paced plot, an edge of your seat read, Carolyn Arnold is one of the many authors I can rely on to meet this need. Therefore, when the opportunity came for me to read and review her latest novel, I could not resist.

The story began with a federal prosecutor being gunned down in front of a high priced condo by a sniper. Although this is not typical of the cases Brandon’s team would investigate, the fact it occurred close to their headquarters, a special request was made for them to take over the investigation. The question on everyone’s mind was why was the victim targeted? As the team dug deeper, they would discover there was more to the murder than they had originally thought, and they may be dealing with a serial killer.

The plot may not have been as fast-paced as the previous books, but it was engaging. I found I could not put the book down, as I had to know how the events would unfold. This is one of those mysteries where figuring out the identity of the villain and the motive for their actions proved difficult. I got my answers at the same time the team did. However, there was one incident the team never saw coming, but I expected that outcome.

It was great re-connecting with the characters. Kelly, a former police officer and a new member of the team, attempted to her worth to her boss throughout the investigation. Meanwhile, Brandon and Paige are struggling with their feelings for each other and guilt over a mistake from their past. The current case did not help the situation as it aided in opening old wounds.

From my experience with the author’s work, I expected to get an insight into the mind of the antagonist throughout the story. However, this was not the case with this installment.

I got a small glimpse into the sniper’s mental state. However, it was not until events were tied up that I got the full details on the sniper’s state of mind. I would have preferred if the author had provided this information throughout the story, as I believe it would have helped me to establish a connection to this character.

As usual, I enjoyed the author’s writing style. Intense, riveting, bold and true to life.

Conclusion/Recommendation
Although, this was not my favourite of the series, I still found Past Deeds to be an engaging read and one I would recommend to fans of mysteries and police procedurals.

This is a readable story, but there are several problems. If an author writes crime, why not get some knowledge on guns, or at least get help on the subject? And why use some first person POV when you have to use a lot of third person to tell the story? And why write a lot of dialogue that isn't really useful?

I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This story begins with a killing which is not far from their home base of D.C. and does not require them flying out. Brandon gets notified and meets up with Paige to go to the location. Paige is now his partner since Zach has taken an analyst position. Jack is now partnered with the new member of the team, Kelly, who happens to be his friend. Kelly was involved with a case which took place in Miami where she assisted them earlier.

This case right now related to only 1 killing, but as they investigated it farther, they found it was a serial killer. Using just a few bits of information, they were able to determine a partner in all of the victims. Paige and Brandon also felw to New Mexico and later California where they found the clue which brought it all together.

If you want to find out why the victims were chosen and how this story finished up, then you need to read this book. I highly recommend it and you won't be disappointed.

A wonderfully absorbing mystery as FBI Agent Brandon Fisher and his team with the Behavioral Analysis Unit track down the killer of a well-known prosecuting attorney. He was taken out with one shot to the heart by a sniper. As Brandon and the other agents, Jack, Kelly and Paige proceed with the case, they find that there were three other men, about the same age, and recently killed in the same manner. Now the case has gone from a single incident to a possible serial killer. Did the men, all from different states and occupations, know each other? The reader is taken through the painstaking and detailed step by step investigation as clue by clue the team uncovers who is behind these murders and why. An amazing eighth book in this series by Ms. Arnold. I received an advance review copy at no cost and without obligation for an honest review. (by paytonpuppy)

This is my first exposure to this author and indeed it didn’t disappoint. Past Deeds is a gripping psychological crime thriller; the story grabs you from the first page and the many twists and turns in the story make it a real page turner that makes it hard to put the book down.
A wonderfully crafted story with well-developed and compelling characters, it has twists and turns that keep you on the edge of your seat right to the last page. It was so captivating and exciting that I simply couldn't put it down! I definitely am looking forward to reading the other books in the series.

Thank you to NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The eighth book in the series, but the first for me meant a lot of time was spent trying to figure out the relationship among the FBI team. The story moved along at a pretty good pace with new revelations continually provided to help the reader and the protagonists figure who was the assassin and why the victims were being eliminated.

I was hoping there would be more logistical and psychological insight throughout the storyline about the sniper. We really only got to see the aftermath of their kills with small gazes into their mental state up until about halfway through the book.

I love these type of novels (snipers, fugitives, cops and robbers, etc.) so my disappointment is based really on the planning by the killer that we don't see until the end, mainly to wrap up the loose ends. I mean, only every four or five chapters were from the sniper's perspective. Most of the book centers around the FBI agents' personal lives and hangups (redundancy overload) and how the team hunted the target, procedurally. The best parts for me were reveals and the pacing in the last third of the book.

I will definitely read earlier books in the series because I liked many of the characters. Also, it appears this book is the lowest rated in the series. It can only get better, right? Also, I don't need constant reminders about events from previous books in the series. Maybe some people do. Just give me a paragraph or two to preserve the continuity of the world building and character ters' personalities.

This was my first time reading this author and the 8th book in the Brandon Fisher series. I already have previous books from the series in my TBR pile

It was a interesting book that is part of a series . You don't have to read the other books to enjoy the book. The villian was sympathetic.

3 stars

A prosecuting attorney named Darrell Reid was shot when leaving an upscale condo building. The sniper shot only him. The FBI team led by SAC Jack Harper is investigating the crime along with Detective Herrera of the Arlington (Virginia), police.

Following the clues, the team learns that Darrell wasn't the only man who was killed by a sniper attack. They are happening all over the country. Darrell makes number four. The team splits up to go to the sites of the earlier killings to interview witnesses and the local police.

As they gather more clues to follow, a picture of the sniper comes into view. The case becomes convoluted and twisty as time passes.

This book was average. I didn't care for the FBI team. The female FBI agents are a mess. They are competitive, constantly snarking at one another. In addition, it seemed like every witness they came across were stupid, a doofis or rude to the point of instant anger on the agents' part. Do FBI agents all think so little of the public? Not very professional or competent in my view. The don't share information with the cops. This just reinforces the belief that the FBI doesn't play well with others and makes them look bad. I felt like I was watching an episode of “Criminal Minds,” but not nearly as well written or acted. This is my first Carolyn Arnold novel that features Brandon Fisher. Based on it, I don't believe I'll be reading any more of her work. There are just too many really fine authors out there waiting for me to read their books.

I want to thank NetGalley and Herbert & Stiles Publishing, Inc/IBPA for forwarding to me a copy of this book for me to read and review.

This is the first book I've read in this series and it seems it should be name differently. Anyway, it was okay and kept me preety connected most the time, but when it didn't it seemed like the lulls lasted forever. I'm not sure that I'll read another in this series which is odd because it's my typically favorite type of book. Anyway, well see.

I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was ok. The story line was great. I didn’t like how it skipped between so many people’s point of views.. I found it to be confusing as to who was talking. #PastDeeds #NetGalley.