Amy and Johnny Novak have moved away for a fresh start for their family but will they be able to escape the lives that Johnny's family drama entails. Once again the mystery and the action is wild!

Author Spotlight - Loraine Peck

If you are a fan of Aussie crime novels and haven’t come across these amazing books from Loraine Peck then I highly recommend adding them to your TBR.

📚The Second Son

Book 1 introduces us to the Novak family, a crime family in Western Sydney. Told from the prospectives of Johnny and his wife Amy. When Johnny’s older brother is gunned down it’s up to Johnny to get revenge for his family.

This book is a wild ride with Johnny torn between loyalty to his family and to his wife who has delivered an ultimatum - give up on the life of crime or lose your wife and son.

📚The Double Bind

Book 2 has Amy and Johnny settling into their new life in a seaside town in Northern NSW. A fresh start for their family leaving the life of crime behind them in Sydney or so they think. Another wild ride with this Aussie crime novel.

A big thank you to @text_publishing and @lorainepeckauthor for the gifted copy. Both books are available to purchase now!

Second book in the series. You can still read this as a standalone. Told by 2 different characters, it was an engaging storyline and I couldnt stop reading it.

It’s not very often that I find a sequel that I enjoyed as much as the first, but Loraine Peck’s The Double Bind did.

While this book holds the new chapters in the Novak family, there are some major plot lines that are linked to the first book The Second Son so it’s a must to read the first book in the series.

This book focuses on the fact that when you are in a crime family, sometimes moving away doesn’t mean crime isn’t going to follow you because when you are a part of the Novaks, crime is going to be right behind you whether you like it or not.

I still love Amy and Johnny in this book and their POVs are back to back again in this thriller. They work as a team in this book yet hold some things back, adding to the suspense of the book. These two are in my top 5 favourite couple list.

I also love the little mention of Tim Ayliffe’s book The Enemy Within, it was great to see Amy read such a fantastic book.

I really hope there is going to be a continuation of this series because I can’t get enough.

Thank you Loraine Peck, Netgalley and Text Publishing for the copy of The Double Bind for reviewing purposes.

A rapid and engaging follow on to The Second Son. It’s good to meet so many of the same family again and despite a new location some things never change and possibly never will. Fast moving
, clever and insights you never expect into the drug dealing world. Loraine Peck is smart enough to add some greater complexity to the base story, all of it entirely believable. I’m sure this won’t be the last we hear of our relatable family. So much more to tell. Thanks for another great read @netgalley. My comments are all my own.

The Double Bind by Loraine Peck is a complex police/gangster/criminal story. When a couple of criminal families, who are seeking to be ex-criminals, move to a sleepy beach side town on the north coast of New South Wales Australia, a plethora of crime takes off!

Amy and Johnny as well as Layla and Carl find themselves in their family businesses which looks impossible to get away from. Amy doesn’t want their eleven year old son involved and Layla would like to have a family too but without the criminal connections. Carl has set up a legitimate business which, unfortunately, becomes the focus of criminal activity. Johnny also endeavours to set up a legitimate security business and finds himself being hired by Carl and inadvertently becomes entangled in gangster activities. There are bad guys trying to be good and bad guys being really bad as well as good guys being bad. Very complicated plot! Intriguing and captivating.

There are also sub-plots that add depth to the story with domestic violence raising it’s ugly head in a idyllic coastal town.

Well developed plot with many interesting characters.

This review is based on a complimentary copy from Text Publishing via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

#TheDoubleBind #Netgalley

A very Happy Publication Day to Loraine Peck on her new book The Double Bind which I have been hanging out for since January when I read her first book in this crime drama series, The Second Son. & WOW, this one was even a wilder ride which I couldn’t put down!

We again follow the Novak Croatian / Sydney crime family but this time, most of the action is set in Hallow’s Head in coastal NSW where Johnny, joined by wife Amy & son Sascha, are trying to start a new life away from the life of crime he has been born into and go straight with a new legit business. But nothing goes to plan and 3 months after moving to the sleepy town, Johnny is drawn back in with the stakes even higher this time with the involvement of a dangerous Mexican cartel and the police closing in.

I loved this one even more than the first installment as I loved seeing gutsy Amy more involved this time around. It’s a tightly woven and propulsive storyline which had me on the edge of my seat – so much better than anything on TV at present in my opinion! Loraine is able to write a really engaging and clever cat and mouse heist masterfully and if you love a twisty, taught crime thriller, I highly recommend checking this one out (even though it could be read as a standalone, I highly recommend reading in order, so you get the whole Novak back story).

Thanks to Netgalley and Text Publishing for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

Amy and Johnny Novak, with their eleven year old son Sasha, fled Sydney and the Novak family after the events in book #1, The Second Son, determined to keep away from the criminal aspect of Johnny's family. The small town of Hallows Head between Ballina and Byron Bay on the north coast of New South Wales was a reprieve for the family; the beautiful home they were living in, all Amy had dreamed about. Johnny's good friend Anto and he started a security business, installing into people's homes. Life was looking good, until the installation into Carl Carusso's home took a nasty turn.

Amy's new job, while Sasha was at school, swiftly saw her making new friends and when one of them needed help, Amy was there for her. But it seemed Johnny was getting involved in what they'd tried to leave, and when his father and cousins arrived from Sydney, Amy didn't know what to do. Could she keep her family safe? Or would their life of crime be their undoing?

The Double Bind is the 2nd in The Novaks series by Aussie author Loraine Peck and it was a brilliant sequel to follow The Second Son. Captivating, intense, gritty and completely enticing, I devoured it. This is a character driven plot, psychologically enthralling with dry humour, and it's one I recommend highly.

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my digital ARC to read in exchange for an honest review.

So, what's the best way to follow up a Ned Kelly Award winning first novel? Produce another cracker that provides more of the same, of course.

Another tough, hard-edged Australian thriller, The Double Bind follows directly on from the explosive events in Loraine Peck’s debut thriller The Second Son. As with the first book, this is a crime story told from the perspective of the criminals.

Amy and Johnny Novak have left Sydney to rebuild their lives and recover from the trauma of a kidnapping and murder that threatened to rip their lives apart. But life in a crime family never really relaxes its grip on you and Johnny, despite his desire to go straight, is dragged straight back into an impossibly dangerous situation.

A plan to smuggle drugs into Australia and then ship them from the northern NSW town of Ballina down to Sydney has been placed in Johnny’s lap. His bid to go straight running his own security agency is the perfect cover for the Sinaloan mafia and, by threatening to kill Amy and his son Sasha if he doesn’t comply, he is forced to throw in with the crooks.

Forced between a rock and a hard place, there is only one choice but this becomes even more complicated when a team of police detectives land at Johnny’s door. They’ve gotten wind of the drug deal and have enough on Amy’s involvement in a recent murder to force Johnny to feed them inside information on the operation. Against every instinct he has been brought up to obey he sees no other choice than to agree to the cops’ demands.

From Ballina to Sydney, this is a swiftly moving thriller that crackles with tension from start to finish.

The story is told in alternating chapters from the first person perspectives of Johnny and Amy. Through them you get a strong sense of their complex personalities. All other character development and description also comes from their reaction to friends, acquaintances and enemies.

Just as with the first Johnny Novak book, The Double Bind marries an incredibly strong family values ethic that plays off against the careful plotting of a heist. We witness the stark contrast between criminal groups that are thrown together with all the accompanying chest thumping and one-upmanship and the caring group of women attempting to save their friend from an abusive relationship.

Close attention should be paid to the way in which the double crosses are carried out - after all, the whole plot hinges on them. I like to think I’m pretty attentive when it comes to devious plans but I found myself struggling to work out who was where, who had the drugs and what about the money, etc. The old shell game is slickly performed so you’d better prepare yourself.

All in all, The Double Bind is a strong follow up to The Second Son and cements Loraine Peck as a leader in the Australian hard-boiled realm.

Oh, and by the way, there's a nice touch with a little mini-review of Tim Ayliffe’s The Enemy Within incorporated into the book. Amy Novak gives it the thumbs up and, I’ve gotta say, I agree with her!

Johnny Novak and his wife Amy have fled to the small town of Hallows Head on the NSW north coast with their 11 year old son Sasha, hoping to escape from Johnny’s Croatian crime boss father and his expectation that Johnny will work in the Novak family business. Despite wanting nothing more than to leave the world of crime behind and start a legitimate business with his best friend Anto, Johnny soon finds himself coerced into working for a new client setting up a special import business with his Mexican cousin Arturo. Moreover, once the police catch on that something big is happening on the coast and Johnny is involved, he is threatened by them to work as an inside source.

This follow up to Loraine Peck’s stunning debut novel, The Second Son, is just as gritty and explosive with a fine streak of humour and sharp dialogue. Poor Johnny can’t catch a break! He just wants a quiet life far from organised crime, but between his father and DCI MacPherson from the NSW Organised Crime Squad, he has few options but to do their bidding. Both the police and the extremely violent crime gang involved in the import have made threats against Amy and Sasha, so that Johnny has no way out, except to use his wits to find a way to outsmart them both.

The character driven plot is fast moving and the tension never lets up. As before, the characters are well drawn, especially the women who are strong and resilient and determined to protect their men and children. The plot is related from the points of view of both Amy and Johnny, who are both keeping secrets from each other, but are both prepared to fight hard to free themselves from the grasp of the criminal underworld. Violent, tense and filled with enough twists to keep your head spinning, this is compulsive reading!

While the novel works well as a stand-alone novel, I’d definitely recommend reading the excellent first book to get to know the main characters and their backstories (you won't regret it!).