Member Reviews

A tense, fast paced, and twisty novel featuring secrets, ambigous characters, mysteries.
I thouroughly enjoyed it and it kept me reading
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

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This was a good book!! I wish I would have read the first one first instead but I will read it next! Highly recommend

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4.5 stars
Tunnel Vision is the second in the Shadows of Chicago Mystery series. The plot of this book stands on its own, but includes a spoiler about a huge twist from the first book in the series, Knife Skills, so proceed with caution! The first book was told from the point-of-view of Sagarine "Sags" Pfister, a talented Chicago chef. Tunnel Vision is narrated by her roommate and friend, Maude Kaminski.

Maude is a contracted analyst for the Chicago Police Department and is assigned to a joint task force with the FBI that is investigating vicious gang-related killings. Maude feels confident that her analysis can help solve these cases, but gets in over her head when she goes undercover to try to get more information on these dangerous gang members. She refuses to give up, though, because she finds out she has a personal connection to the case.

I loved the memorable characters and plot twists in this book. Although Maude is the focus of this book, Sags still plays an important role in the story. This is a gripping, fast-paced, and tense book that I did not want to put down. I was scared for Maude when she was in danger and was cheering her on when she refused to give up. I enjoyed the twists and turns in the story and the ending, especially the very last scene, has me already anticipating what might happen next!

I received an advance copy of this ebook for review consideration from NetGalley and Severn House, but my review is voluntary and unbiased.

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This packs a lot into a slim volume. That's a good thing because Church doesn't throw in extraneous details and keeps the pace up. Maude is an analyst and she's meant to be working a case involving fentanyl trafficking but then a backpack that belonged to her 3 year old brother- who has been missing for 20 years- turns up and all bets are off. THIs makes good use of its Chicago setting, it's topical, and Maude's a great character. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. A good read.

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Chicago police analyst, Maude Kaminski, is working on an unofficial quest to find her brother who’s been missing for 20 years.
When an undercover officer is shot, she is given a chance to replace the undercover agent, to get close to a Philadelphia drug gang that's moving into town, and is thrust into the terrifying criminal underworld.

Maude’s normal job involves collecting, exploiting, assessing and interpreting a range of overt and covert information sources and delivering valuable, influential analysis to tackle threat, risk and harm. She’s about to find out how dangerous life is on the front line!
Things get even more worrying when the team suspects a mole in their midst.

Haven’t read this author before but I’d be more than happy to read the follow up to Tunnel Vision. The book is well written and moves at a good pace with a gripping storyline and some interesting characters. It can also be read as a stand-alone. Recommended.

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I thoroughly enjoyed Tunnel Vision by Wendy Church. Tunnel Vision is part of a series, “A Shadows of Chicago Mystery” but can be read as a standalone book. Please see the end of my review for my thoughts on this.

Tunnel Vision follows Maude, a technical analyst for the Chicago PD who is growing her career working on a task force related to drug distribution in Chicago, while also doing her own part time investigation into her missing brother who has been missing since age 3.

Throughout the book Maude faces many challenges in her career, friendships, relationships and within her own character. She isn’t perfect, but she is striving to be better and be better for others. Maude gets a bit distracted from her main duties on the police task force as she is secretly trying to find her long lost brother. The characters in this book have great depth to them which kept me invested. The knowledge that the author wrote on underground Chicago was also fascinating. My only negatives were that some of the actions that the police allowed felt a little far fetched but I am not in expert in police task forces or protocols and it did not detract from the plot or storyline.

Overall I think this was a well rounded book that showed character development, female empowerment in a male dominated field, strength in relationships, and a dang good plot line that kept my interest.

I’d like to thank NetGalley and the publisher Severn House for allowing me to read and review an Advanced Readers Copy in exchange for an honest review.

The forward that Wendy writes in her book expresses that this can be read as a standalone book but is part of a series and if you choose to read “Tunnel Vision” before the first book, “Knife Skills” you will have major spoilers for the first book. In order for me to comment on that, I chose to read “knife skills” first. “Tunnel Vision” will definitely have spoilers for “Knife Skills” so if you choose to read “Knife Skills” second, you will know the main outcomes to the plot of the first book, but you will still get to follow those characters on a separate journey and see Maude’s best friend Sagarine’s storyline.

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Tunnel Vision features Chicago PD analyst Maude Kamanski, who finds herself ona task force investigating a Philadelphia drug gang that's moving in. When an undercover officer is shot she finds herself in an unfamiliar role on the street rather than in her comfort zone at her computer.

But Maude is distracted when a link emerges to her missing brother, who disappeared as a young child. She finds herself running an unofficial investigation while trying to maintain her professional role. And when the team suspects they have a mole, things get even more interesting.

Tunnel Vision is a good novel with a strong sense of place and some interesting characters. There are perhaps too many coincidences in the plot, but the basic narrative of a young woman facing professional and personal challenges is compelling.

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I really enjoyed reading this book, it had that mystery element that I was hoping for and enjoyed the use of Chicago. The characters were everything that I was looking for and enjoyed that this was a part of Shadows of Chicago Mystery series. Wendy Church wrote this perfectly and left me wanting to read more. Wendy Church was able to create a unique world and characters that I was engaged with and worked in the story itself. I'm excited to read more.

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