I have to say that this was my least favorite of the Eve Duncan series. There was too much going on...Cartel, Russian Mob, Scottish treasure. Jane’s still wishy washy with Caleb. Eve needs to get back to watch she does best finding the lost.

(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)

World-famous forensic sculptor Eve Duncan has landed in a well-guarded hospital room in Carmel, California. But hidden danger looms for Eve, her beloved Joe Quinn, and Cara Delaney, the young girl they’ve both sworn to protect. With Cara’s enemies on the move, Eve has no choice but to flee the hospital—no matter what the doctors say. Her protective instincts in full gear, she decides that their best chance of survival is to get out of the country. She turns to her daughter, Jane MacGuire, for help.
For years, Jane has been avoiding pressure to find a treasure thought to be buried in Scotland—but she’s finally succumbed to John MacDuff’s pleas to track it down. Eve and Cara join Jane in the remote mountains, but soon realize that nowhere is far enough away from the ruthless predators who are on their trail...

*2.5 stars*

I am a firm believer that every series has a used-by-date - and I think that Eve Duncan is now well past that point. We are now at book 20 in the series and here is what the blurb says "...Eve Duncan is back and now the stakes are higher than ever." After 20 successive books, the stakes would be through the roof, not just getting higher. And that is the problem with this book...

...it just doesn't really go where you think it should.

I felt like the first few chapters were just explaining what happened in the previous book - I get that some people may pick this up as their first Iris Johansen book. But instead of just info-dumping at the start of the book, work that back story into the novel so it flows better for those who are up to date.

Also, there really isn't anything left for Eve Duncan to do - she has faced all types of criminals and stared them down. She has done so much research into victim - some with barely any clues for Eve to work off - that nothing is now beyond her abilities...

Just. Let. Her. Go.

Enough is enough. We know exactly what is coming, why not let her retire/leave and bring another new character with a different set of skills to take over. That would make this series interesting again. Even keep Eve on as a consultant or something. But I just feel this series needs to change to remain interesting.


Paul
ARH