Review: Tell No Lies by Allison Brennan

Tell No Lies (Quinn & Costa, Book #2)

by Allison Brennan

Release Date: March 30, 2021

2021 MIRA

Kindle Edition; 432 Pages

ISBN: 978-0778331469

ASIN: B087JTYYSY

Audiobook: B08HSP5TST

Genre: Fiction / Mystery

Source: Review copy from publisher

4 / 5 Stars

Summary

Something mysterious is killing the wildlife in the mountains just south of Tucson. When a college intern turned activist sets out to collect her own evidence, she, too, ends up dead. Local law enforcement is slow to get involved. That’s when the mobile FBI unit goes undercover to infiltrate the town and its copper refinery in search of possible leads.

Quinn and Costa find themselves scouring the desolate landscape, which keeps revealing clues to something much darker—greed, child trafficking and more death. As the body count adds up, it’s clear they have stumbled onto much more than they bargained for. Now they must figure out who is at the heart of this mayhem and stop them before more innocent lives are lost.

 

My Thoughts

Tell No Lies is the second book in the Quinn & Costa series, a series featuring a mobile FBI unit that deals with cases in more remote areas where they can help with the more difficult cases if needed.  This was very different than the first book in the series, and I liked the environmental focus in this one.  It did start out a bit slowly, but certainly picked up as the story progressed and everything started falling into place.  

 

Matt and Kara continue to be my favourite characters in this series.  Having read the previous instalment, I am familiar with Kara's background, so I was interested in how she would be dealing with the fallout of what happened and trying to find a new place on a very different team and in a very different job from which she was familiar.  I am glad that she struggled with adapting and hadn't yet come to terms with the fact that her job in LA may be over as it can be very difficult to let go of something you loved.  Plus, the fallout of that is still happening.  I find her relationship with Matt to be quite interesting as well as Kara is used to being in charge of her actions and making her own decisions, and has to continuously remind herself that Matt is her boss; therefore, she does need to take direction and instruction from him on a continuous basis, something that is very different from the undercover work she has done.  I find her struggles to be a team player to be quite fascinating.  It's not that she can't work in a team environment, it's just that working undercover is so very different from what they are now doing.  Plus, Matt has difficulty letting Kara do the job that she has been trained to do.  I think there will be more conflict there in the future and I am curious as to how it will all play out.  

 

The author also spends time developing her other characters, and it's a real skill when an author can create a sympathetic character, but slowly twist their personality so you eventually see this whole other side to them through their actions, or what they choose not to do until eventually you feel nothing but contempt.  

 

I thought the plot had plenty of twists and turns, and it certainly went in a direction I thought it might go. I was king of hoping the main focus would be more on the environmental side of things, which was fascinating, while the other, while heartbreaking, was a bit predictable. The suspense does start rather slowly, but eventually the author managed to tie in all the loose ends into a satisfactory ending.  

Verdict

Tell No Lies was a satisfying second entry in this series.  I thought the author did a great job at developing both her main and secondary characters, and while I really loved the environmental story line, the entire plot was well done with plenty of twists and turns.  This book can definitely be read as a standalone, although you may want to read the first book just to get some background information on the characters.  I will definitely be reading the next book in this series, The Wrong Victim, when it releases in April 2022.