The Drowned Woman is the second book in the Jericho and Wright Thriller series, set in the fictional town of Cambria City, Pennsylvania, yet it is the first one I read and it worked fine as a standalone. Leah is the doctor contracted to the Crisis Intervention program. She is called by Detective Jericho to come to a standoff involving a man who appears to have dementia. His wife has just been found dead, either fallen or pushed over a three story banister. Her husband reacts in violence and confusion, and Leah is able to calm him and get him out of his apartment. At the same time she meets his neighbour, Risa Saliba, a former investigative journalist, who had helped the victim take care of her husband and suffers from a complex and undiagnosed medical problem. Although housebound she tells Leah that she is being stalked by a serial killer who keeps boasting in his emails about getting away with murder for almost two decades. Now there seems to be two crimes to investigate.

Fortunately for those who have not read The Next Widow, CJ Lyons includes enough backstory that gives a good idea of what happened in book one. I really enjoyed Nate and Emily, the two kids in this story. They are gutsy and care very much for each other. Both of them have dealt with so much in their young lives that I felt so much compassion for them. This is a well written, twisty plot that has multiple angles to the story. Even though there was a lot going on, I was never confused or lost while reading this one. Not only was there a crime to solve, there was a lot of drama involving the kids, and both Leah’s and Luka’s lives. This book had me quickly flipping pages to see what was going to happen next. I did figure out who was behind some of the incidents, but not all. Then once I did, the motive was another mystery. Overall this was an enjoyable mystery and thriller. I will definitely be checking out the first book in this series.

You know it’s a page turner when it’s 2 am and you’re not ready to stop reading. This is what happened to me when I started this book and soon I was at 25% and I didn’t realise I had been been reading for nearly two hours.
This is a fast paced, gripping and highly entertaining story that kept me hooked and turning pages as fast as I could.
It’s an excellent police procedural and I like the mix of investigation and the description of of Leah/Luka’s family life.
Both Leah and Luka are complex and fleshed out character and I appreciated how the author deals with their grief and their path to heal.
The plot it tightly knitted, full of twists and turns, and even if I guessed the culprit quite early I was kept guessing about the motives and what was going on.
I think that the author delivered and excellent story and even if it’s the second in a series it can be read as a stand-alone.
I can’t wait to read the next instalment and catch up with Leah and Luka.
This one is strongly recommended.
Many thanks to Bookouture and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

A slow burner but a great story. I have to admit I struggled through the first quarter of this book. There is no instant hook, nothing that grabs you, but something grabbed me.
I can’t say at which point it becomes one of those books you just can’t put down but it did
I really enjoyed the relationship between the two main characters, whilst investigating a crime and in their private lives
In these days, where crime is everywhere on the shelves, it’s not often you come across a completely original thread in a storyline but this book has one, and it might have been that which kept me reading
This isn’t a spoiler because it comes in quite early. There’s an old lady that proof reads obituaries, but she’s been receiving some about people who died in accidents.......before the accident, and it’s been going on for years.
Yes. I think that’s what kept me reading, and I’m glad I did.

After a captivating prologue the story started meandering with the police beating about the bush only to pick up two thirds of the way through. The conclusion felt rushed with some loose ends, the suspense was just okay. I almost DNF it.

The Drowned Woman is the second in C.J. Lyons' fabulous series featuring Detective Sergeant Luka Jericho and Police Consultant Dr Leah Wright. In this cracking instalment, Luka investigates a woman's death after she took a tumble over a third-floor bannister. The victim's husband is a distraught, aggressive man who has dementia, so Luka calls upon Leah to help calm him down. In the course of events, Leah meets Risa Saliba, a neighbour in the block of flats where the woman's death occurred. Leah learns that Risa believes herself to be a victim of a stalker. The police then find evidence that a serial killer is operating in their rural Pennsylvania town... and it's the same person who's claiming responsibility for drowning Luka’s fiancée seventeen years ago.

I really enjoyed reading The Drowned Woman and couldn't put it down! With its many twists, I was desperate to reach the end. Having read the first book The Next Widow, I was praying that this one would be equally as good... and it was! Leah is now the new head of the Crisis Intervention Centre and for her part was Mrs Calm and Collected, ambitious and resilient, the level-headed person that everyone needs in a crisis. C.J. Lyons' has cast all of her characters well and they all had something brilliant to contribute to the story.

The plot was enthralling and as the story progressed the suspense levels rose proportionately and I was kept guessing till the finale. All in all The Drowned Woman really packed a punch. An intense, fiendishly good read that I highly recommend.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel from Bookouture via NetGalley at my request and this review is my own unbiased opinion.

Book 2 in the series with Luka and Leah at the helm and author CJ Lyons making them dance to her tunes.

This was a no-holds barred kinda series. In book 1, the author made Leah go through the most horrible emotional loss in the first few chapters and this time it was Luka’s turn. This doubly convoluted murder mystery would turn Luka inside out when he realized the truth about his past.

An elderly falling from a height at the beginning to a stalker of the neighbor, the story progressed to a serial killer. A truth was finalized when it was revealed that Luka’s fiancé too had been murdered. It was no suicide. The blood pounded as the desperate fervor to reach the killer struck both of them.

The writing was swift paced, the characters were varied, all with their own personal problems, and grief still tinged the prose when I read the parts of the children, Emily and Nate, trying to survive with a new normal in their lives.

I shut down the analytical part of my brain and read this book, enjoying the investigation until it reached the finale when I could put my kindle down. Good twists and blind alleys and the chaos of the killer made the dynamic duo, the doctor and copper, race against time to unmask the evil.

An interesting read.

A tense, fast-paced crime thriller that also pulls on the heart strings. C.J. Lyons engages readers with a wonderful cast of characters and exciting story line.

Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC of #TheDrownedWoman which was read and reviewed voluntarily.

this is a well crafted mystery with characters, main characters who dealt with big traumas and keep fighting to help others get justice. I figured out the bad guy so to speak, somewhat early on but it didn't detract from the story, that was both in the present and went back 17 years

‘The Drowned Woman’ by CJ Lyons is the second thriller in the Jericho and Wright Thrillers series.
I struggled initially to understand the background and connections between the main characters of Dr Leah Wright and Detective Luka Jericho as I was not familiar with the previous novel in the series. This second novel takes place a month after the previous story and makes numerous references to those events. It took me a little while to catchup but I was eager to do so – particularly as the prologue was so attention grabbing and I was looking forward to the story moving onwards. It is not long before the pace of the story picks up and Luka begins to investigate a new case, only to discover that the death is actually the work of a dangerous serial killer – and also the killer of his fiancée seventeen years earlier.

The characters were well developed and the author paid particular attention to the characters of Emily and Nate – creating appealing and sympathetic children. Rather than the one dimensional cookie cutter characters so often drawn for children in thrillers.

EXCERPT: Flying. She was flying.

Wind sliced against her face. Time was fluid, slippery. Was it centuries, or seconds? She knew she was falling from the lurch in her stomach. She took a ragged breath, in and out, then a slam jolted through her, and her entire body propelled forward until the airbag blew and the seatbelt grabbed her, holding her in place with a bruising grasp.

Her eyes fluttered open as the first splash of frigid water crashed through the open window beside her. She shook her head, startled to be awake - to be alive. Her throat was raw, every breath an effort. Her head throbbed, ears shrieked, body bruised. Hands flailing, fighting...

More water, seeping up from below, streaming through the windows - the car, she was in her car. In the river - how? She blinked, tried to focus past the pain and the rushing noise that consumed her mind. Why?

He'd tried to kill her...Why?

ABOUT 'THE DROWNED WOMAN': One month since she lost her husband, Dr Leah Wright knows it’s time to return to her family home. Though the crime scene tape and blood stains are gone, she will never feel safe with her daughter there again. Receiving a call from Detective Luka Jericho to assist with a police investigation is a welcome distraction, until she sees the scene: a wife dead, another family ripped apart.

As Leah is the new head of the Crisis Intervention Center, Luka knows she can help him speak to the victim’s traumatized husband, who he suspects might have had something to do with his wife’s death. But when Leah interviews the woman who lives across the hall, they uncover evidence of a serial killer in their rural Pennsylvania town. The same person who claims responsibility for drowning Luka’s fiancée seventeen years ago…

With danger closer to home than ever before, Leah realises that to find the killer they may need to dig into Luka’s past. But the killer is already taunting Luka, promising to kill again. Is it already too late to save another innocent life?

MY THOUGHTS: Fast paced. Full of action and angst. There's a lot going on and you need to keep your wits about you. You will also need to suspend a little belief in places.

The characters are all dynamic and damaged. My favourites are Walt, who has Huntington's, and the two children, Nate and Emily. Nate is scared to love anything, anyone, believing that that if you love something, someone just comes along and steals it from you, and swears that he is never, ever going to love anyone. My heart literally broke for this child. Emily is more resilient, but then up until recently she has had a far more stable life. She shows wisdom beyond her years in her support of Nate and her approach to problem solving.

Leah and Luca and their associates are caught up in an intense and fraught situation which is certainly riveting and a definite page turner. But as I was reading there was this little voice whispering, 'Isn't there just too many too badly damaged characters?' I guess that the answer for me was 'yes.' The same little voice also whispered the name of the killer quite early on in the book, and was right. After a split second of jubilation that I had actually detected correctly, I realized that I hate it when that happens.

This is the second book in the Jericho and Wright Thriller series. I recommend that you read the first book in the series, The Next Widow, prior to reading The Drowned Woman, as the backstory is frequently referred to.

If you love a lot of action then you will love The Drowned Woman. For me, Nate and Emily were the highlight.

⭐⭐⭐.7

#TheDrownedWoman #NetGalley

THE AUTHOR: New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of over forty novels, former pediatric ER doctor CJ Lyons has lived the life she writes about in her cutting edge Thrillers with Heart. She also writes YA SF and thrillers under the pen name Cat Lyons.

Two time winner of International Thriller Writers' prestigious Thriller Award, CJ has been called a "master within the genre" (Pittsburgh Magazine) and her work has been praised as "breathtakingly fast-paced" and "riveting" (Publishers Weekly) with "characters with beating hearts and three dimensions" (Newsday). (Amazon)

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Bookouture via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of The Drowned Woman by C.J. Lyons for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com

This review and others are also published on Twitter, Amazon, Instagram and my webpage

I don't think I realized this was the second book in the Jericho and Wright series when I downloaded it. I would say that while this can be read as a standalone, it would add to your enjoyment if you read the first book. I kept feeling like I was missing some backstory throughout the book and had a hard time keeping track of what was going on. Because of that, it took me a while to get through the book.

So...I don't want to take away stars for being unaware of the first book. I did have some trouble with the character development, perhaps because there were a lot of characters who would have been familiar had I read the first book. The storyline was great with a lot of suspects and red herrings. I was very invested in finding out more about the death of Luka's fiancé, and I loved Ruby, Leah Wright's mom who seems like the character with the most liveliness in the book.

There were a lot of unanswered questions, which I'm guessing we will find out more about in the next book, so in the meantime, I'll have to check out The Next Widow so I can see what I missed!

Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for an advance reader's copy for review.

I received a free electronic ARC of this enticing mystery novel from Netgalley, author CJ Lyons, and publisher Bookouture. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me. I have read this novel of my own volition, and this review reflects my honest opinion of this work. CJ Lyon brings to life excellent, fast-paced action with personable protagonists. She is an author I will follow.

The Drowned Woman is the second in the Jerico and Wright Thriller series but completely stands alone. It takes place in and around Cambria City, PA, and is modern except for a flashback Prologue that sets the scene from 17 years ago. I have not read the first, The Next Widow, but I will - and I hope there will be many more, both in this series and the several other series that CJ brings to us.

Leah Wright is a very recent widow, mother of tweenie Emily, and is an Emergency Room Physician who has reluctantly transferred over to a new hospital start-up department so her hours away from home will not be so extensive nor shifts into the night. Now that Ian is gone, Emily needs her Mom to work school hours rather than all the hours of the day and night, which the Emergency Room often demands of its physicians.

Luka Jericho is forty-something, still single, and has worked in Cambria City's Violent Crimes Unit for years. Back in college, he was a scholar and a poet - until his fiancee, Cherise Sumner drowned in her car in the Susquehanna River in what was believed to be a suicide. How can a man who cannot see that sort of pain in the woman he loves consider himself a poet? Instead, he dedicated his life to a career in law enforcement. And it was a good fit - he has worked his way up through the police department to being deputy sergeant in charge of the Violent Crimes Unit.

The Crisis Intervention Center or CIC is a program that joins doctors with police when a call contains drug abuse, psychotic breaks, or domestic violence, sexual assaults, or other domestic traumas, cases which do not necessarily have to require brute force when the simple art of intervention will suffice. If they can get it set up properly, it will be a great assist to both the police and the medical field and will cut back considerably on problems in the field, especially with adequate training of police officers to help them recognize those cases where the intervention will work in place of bullets. If. And it is not going to fail if Leah and Luka have anything to do with it. But it seems the force is not with them, lately.

I have to admit that I'm just a little addicted to CJ Lyons books. This is the second book in the Jericho and Wright series but can easily be read as a stand alone. The first book is an amazing start to what is quickly becoming a "must read" series for me. THE DROWNED WOMAN moves our investigative team into a complicated series of crimes that will all take them one step closer to finding the truth of the single most traumatizing moment in Jericho's life.

CJ Lyons is well known for the ability to grab a reader's attention on the first page and keep them engrossed in the story through the end. Most books are "read in one sitting" good. The back stories and the characters are so well defined, you almost recognize them from real life. A skilled author who keeps getting better with every book.

This is the second book in this series and I loved it!
Leah has taken a job linked to the Police to help victims and soon Luka asks her to help at a crime scene.
A woman has been found dead and her husband is not taking it well. He’s being treated as a criminal and it’s making the situation worse so Leah and a neighbour try and calm him.
The neighbour asks to speak to Leah and shares some worrying correspondence with her.
Risa has been sent letters from someone calling himself Chaos and it seems he’s been on a killing spree.
Luka is still dealing with the death of his fiancé and on the day of the anniversary, it all comes flooding back to him. When Chaos sends a video linked to her death, it makes Luka’s blood boil.
Emily is still trying to deal with her Dad’s death and Nate is trying to get used to his new home with Luka, and they strike up a great friendship.
This is a gripping crime thriller with a real nail biting conclusion.
I love the characters Leah and Luka and can’t wait to read more in this series.
Thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

I’d like to thank Bookouture and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘The Drowned Woman’, the second in the Jericho and Wright series written by C J Lyons, in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

Detective Luka Jericho is requested to attend what initially appears to be the accidental death of elderly Trudy Orly together with Dr Leah Wright who now works with Luka for the Violent Crimes Unit. After meeting Trudy’s husband Walt they interview Risa Saliba, the neighbour who lives next door, but Luka feels something is not quite right and asks Leah to delve more deeply into Risa’s ill-health. What they discover brings back unwanted memories of the suspected suicide of Luka’s fiancé Cherise who drowned seventeen years ago.

‘The Drowned Woman’ is a gripping and chillingly tense thriller and a worthy addition to the Jericho and Wright series. It’s a month since Leah’s husband was murdered and we catch up with how she’s coping with her own grief and that of her daughter Emily’s, while Luka’s been thrown into parenthood by caring for his late sister’s four-year-old son Nate. The story is well-written, the plot involved, and there’s lots of excitement, drama and suspense. As I neared the last part of the book I found myself reading more and more quickly as I had to discover the identity of ‘Chaos’. This is another enjoyable thriller by C J Lyons with the partnership between the two characters having all the hallmarks of becoming a very successful series. I can recommend it

This was such a wonderfully written book. This book was just dripping with emotion. There were twists and turns.and surprises thrown in. The author does an incredible job writing the various types of grief each character is going through. This book definitely touches the heart while feeding my need for a good mystery.

A great murder mystery is like a 5000 piece puzzle, every piece important and some fool you. Last book Leah became a widow and Luka found the murderer. This time we delve into Luka’s past, the death of his fiancé seventeen years ago. While the two of them are working out how to be single parents, not as a couple but from similar circumstances, they have a new set of crimes to solve. The death of an elderly woman opens up a can of worms for her neighbor and leads Leah and Luka on quite the adventure. I found myself making assumptions about the killer but then new clues directed me to somewhere else. These two make an exciting team and have an incredible connection with similar thinking patterns. It’s truly a nonstop gripping thrill ride that I read in two days, I didn’t want to step away. My copy came through Netgalley and wrote my review voluntarily.

The Drowned Woman is the second instalment in the Detective Sergeant Luka Jericho and Police Consultant Doctor Leah Wright Thriller series, set in the fictional town of Cambria City, Pennsylvania. As head of the police's new Crisis Intervention program, a world away from her previous job as an ER doctor, Leah is called out by Detective Jericho to calm a man whose wife has just been found dead in her apartment block; Trudy had somehow fallen over the third-story railing and on to the atrium below. It is unclear whether it was an accident, a suicide attempt or if she was purposefully pushed. Her husband has dementia and is caught in a frenzy of confusion and grief, which leads to him being both noisy and aggressive. He could be responsible and not even remember doing it. As the police begin interviewing neighbours Leah meets Risa Saliba, a former investigative journalist, who lives across the hallway from the victim and suffers from a complex assortment of medical issues. Although housebound she tells Leah that she is being stalked by a serial killer who keeps boasting in his emails about getting away with murder for almost two decades. This stalker also claims responsibility for drowning Luka’s fiancée seventeen years ago.

Can Leah and Luka get to the bottom of Trudy's death and investigate the bold claims of this apparent serial killer without anyone else being harmed? This is a riveting and compulsive read from the moment you begin right through to the end. It is a little slower in pace than the first book but this works well to ensure each plot thread is explored equally. Jericho is looking after both his nephew, Nate, and his 83-year-old temperamental father while balancing family life against his work at the Violent Crimes Unit. Wright was recently widowed as her husband, Ian, was murdered in their home. She and daughter, Emily, are still working through the grief. Both protagonists are superbly developed, and I loved that they each have complicated interconnected backstories, which are just as compelling and exciting as the main plot. It's well written, with plenty of twists and turns throughout and despite the multiple angles to the plot it's never confusing; there is always something going on so it barely gives you a moment to breathe. It's a captivating story with tonnes of drama and a cast of interesting characters, which was both entertaining and enjoyable. Highly recommended.

The Drowned Woman by C.J. Lyons is the 2nd in the Jericho & Wright Crime series.

First, let me thank NetGalley, the publisher Bookouture, and of course the author, for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.


Series Information:  (Warning – May contain spoilers from previous books)
DS Luka Jericho has been in the Violent Crimes Unit in Pennsylvania for over 10 years, and fought to remain on the streets.  He doesn't want a desk job. His team consists of  Ray Acevedo, Scott Kricheck and newcomer Naomi Harper.  He is now caring for his nephew Nate as well as his elderly father.  Dr. Leah Wright is the new  head of the Crisis Intervention Center, working closely with the police.  Her husband recently died, and she is looking after her daughter Emily with the help of her estranged mother Ruby.



My Synopsis:   (No major reveals, but if concerned, skip to My Opinions)
An older woman lays at the bottom of an apartment staircase, her husband  reacting loudly and violently above.  Did she fall, did she jump, was she pushed?  The woman's husband has a form of dementia, and could be responsible. 

While Leah is interviewing the neighbour, she discovers that Risa had hired Ian to look into an email stalker who she thinks may be a serial killer.  When Risa learned of Ian's death, she thought it may have been the stalker that killed him, but Leah assured her that her husband's murderer was not the person that has been sending Risa emails.  However, she did agree to send the information on the stalker to Luka to investigate.  Leah also agreed to look into Risa's medical files to see if she can determine why she is in such ill health.

When Leah's stalker insists that he killed Luka's fiancee 17 years ago, his world will be torn apart.

Meanwhile, Leah is having issues raising her daughter without the help of a husband, while not trusting her mother to stick around.  Luka is having issues with his nephew as well, not to mention an 83-year old rather cantankerous father.


My Opinions:   
This is turning out to be a good series.  This second book is a fast-paced mystery with  an interesting plot. 

The book dealt with loss and grief, but it also showed that these can be overcome.  People can move on.  

The characters are getting deeper.  I particularly like Luka and Leah, but still don't like either of the kids or Ruby. They are just annoying, and their stories just detract from the main plot.  I did guess the perpetrator early on, but there were enough other suspects that I sometimes wondered if I was correct.

Overall, it looks like I will stick with the series.

Thank you to Net Galley and CJ Lyons for the advanced copy in return for my honest review. This book is available on November 10th so be sure to pre-order or out a reminder in your calendar to order day of!

Leah, a doctor, recently left the ER to start as a consultant for the police department. Luka, a police officer, met Leah a year ago when he shot and killed the man who murdered her husband. Since then their personal and professional lives have become intertwined. This story has them both involved in the search for a serial killer who claims to have had a hand in Luka’s fiancée’s death, seventeen years prior.

I will say that although I enjoyed this book, it is the second book in a series and having not had a chance to read the first book I felt as though I missed a lot of character development and story lines. Knowing this I would have read the first book (The Next Widow) so that I could feel a bit more connected to the characters. All that to say – this was a really great book! The author did an excellent job of keeping multiple story lines going at once and threading them throughout one another to keep the book moving. I am an avid reader and can usually figure out the ending, which can often take the fun out of reading. This book had me wondering from start to finish!