I love Detective Kelly! As always she is fearless, hardworking and resourceful. And with this being her first murder case she will stop at nothing to bring justice to it. The story started a bit slow and then boom, it dropped the bomb and I found myself holding my breath as I continue reading, The mystery, suspense and thrill are all spot on and amazing. If you love the Detective Kelly and her adventures in the first book, you will admire her more on this one! 100% mind blowing read!

Recovering from a bullet wound she suffered during her last case, Kelly Pruett is asked to investigate a missing persons case. A long-ago school friend has asked Kelly to locate her father, Vince, who has disappeared. Kelly is trying to accept safer cases as she has joint custody of her daughter who is deaf. She begins asking questions of the people who knew Vince which leads her to some interesting and slightly dangerous characters. On the positive side, her personal life is somewhat better since Kyle Jaeger, a police officer she had met two years ago entered her life. When the police locate Vince, they are not surer if his death was an accident or murder. An interesting mystery as Kelly hopes to find closure for her friend. When she is warned to stop her investigation and is faced with danger, she gets help from an unlikely source. I received an advance review copy at no cost and without obligation for an honest review. (by paytonpuppy)

Denied by Mary Keliikoa is the second book in The Kelly Pruett Mystery Series. Even though when I started this book I felt it was a little slow, it did not take long to explode and then I couldn’t put it down!!! I read this as a stand-alone but that did not matter. Keliikoa has some very well developed characters and a strong female lead that kept me up very late reading!! Her great storytelling is filled with suspense, tension, family lies and secrets, with a twisty scheme that will keep you reading for hours! I highly recommend this book! I will definitely go back and read the first one!

Thank you NetGalley and Camel Press for an ARC of this book in e change for an honest review.
#NetGalley #Denied. # MaryKeliikoa #ARC

Private Investigator Kelly Pruett thinks she has signed on for a simple missing person's case when she agrees to look for her former friend/classmate's missing father. Not long after Kelly begins her investigation, the missing man's car is discovered submerged in a nearby river. Even thought Kelly found signs of a serious gambling addiction and a severed finger in Vince's house, the police take the accident at face value. Vince fell asleep at the wheel, ran off the road, and died when his car crashed over an embankment and into the river. But Kelly is tenacious, and she believes there is more to the case than meets the eye. Investigating Vince's gambling addiction put her in the crosshairs of local mobsters. and her questions about Vince infuriate some of the locals. When Kelly uncovers a shady land deal, she finds herself on the right track of determining why Vince was killed. And it also puts her in danger.

After a bit of a slow start, DENIED ramped up with the action. At first, Kelly is the only one who seems to think that something bad has happened to Vince. Not even the severed finger that she finds in his house is enough to get the local police involved beyond determining if the finger belonged to Vince. And then, after Vince and his car are found in the river, the police chalk it up to a tragic accident. If it wasn't for Kelly's tenacity to get to the truth and her willingness to put herself in danger, no one would know who killed Vince or why that person decided he had to die. There are a number of shady characters in DENIED, and they all make great suspects.

Having read DERAILED, the first novel in the series, I was excited to see what Kelly would get up to in the follow-up novel. Kelly continues to develop as a character, and her relationships with her daughter, ex-husband, former mother-in-law, and her new boyfriend grow and change as well. Kelly (and the reader) also learn more about her father—a private investigator who seems to have kept several secrets from his only child. I can't wait to see what happens next.

"Denied" is a suspense/mystery. This is the second book in the series. You don't need to read the previous books to understand this one, and this one didn't spoil the mystery of the previous book. However, the book description led me to have some wrong expectations about the book. Kelly's deaf daughter was a minor character who was mainly cared for by her ex, who seemed like a fairly nice guy. The puppy was just a pet, usually asleep on the passenger seat of the car. Until, suddenly, he was out sniffing out clues. It wasn't clear if the dog had some training or if this was simply an innate instinct for his breed, but it was rather unexpected at that point.

Kelly was a very human heroine, wanting to live up to a high ideal but feeling like she was failing. She's very determined and cares about others. She's quite competent in the sense that she asked good questions, was observant, followed up on clues, and even survived quite a few dangerous situations. But she also made some wrong assumptions and mistakes. She broke some laws and once suffered consequences for those actions. I initially understood her motivation for continuing to search for the truth despite the danger (threats, exploding cars, knives, etc.) to herself. I was baffled, though, by why she couldn't let go when a trustworthy detective said they would seriously investigate everything she had found, so she could now focus on staying safe (and being the good mom that she aspires to be).

There was a fair amount of bad language. There were no sex scenes. Overall, I'd recommend this exciting mystery.

Another fantastic addition to the series. Excellent storytelling and character portrayal. I really loved the inclusion of 'developments in Kelly's familial front'. The story gets better in the second half - the tension and suspense are at an all-time high.
Highly recommended!

A straightforward detective--private investigator--story! Readers dive into the mysterious drama that surrounds a missing person’s case. A case that leads our main character, Kelly, into the world of gambling and cover-up. But just who is behind it all? Kelly must discover who is the enemy or if indeed an ally. Although a bit slow and somewhat underwhelming, the reader can expect to enjoy an uncomplicated thriller!

Although this is book 2 in a series, I didn't have any trouble following along. I thought it took a while to get going but did turn into a solid story. I enjoyed the fiery spirit of the main character in her pursuit of the truth.

Well written and with great characters like in the first book, this is an easy book to read. The problem for me is that the main character still isn't very smart. Using phones for photos and recordings, for instance, should always be in the mind of a P.I.