Nearly 5 stars, but I cannot agree with the twist this takes into the next book, but still, great idea.
Read them in order, starting with the first book.
Recommended, fast page-turner.

A special thank you to Amazon Publishing, Thomas & Mercer, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

ALMOST DEAD (The Lizzy Gardner Series Book # 5) by T.R. Ragan, another kick-ass group of strong women, for a cleverly written, fast-paced, and complex multi-layered winner! The mix of humor and evil, strongly reminding me of talented, Karin Slaughter, for a suspenseful action-packed crime thriller.

After PI Lizzy’s wedding was interrupted by gunfire and her husband to be, Jared was shot, he is now in a coma and his estranged family is fighting Lizzy to take control over his future. However, Lizzy wants to carry out Jared’s wishes.

With bad memories, Lizzy is left to stay with her sister, which is short lived due to all the violence with her sister's abusive husband. So now Lizzy and Haley are living with Kitally, in a huge house she inherited from her family, and the three girls are working together with the PI firm – Lizzy Gardner Investigations.

Wow, the girls are dealing with a number of complex cases, dogs, kidnapping, a fraud workman comp case, murders, and a serial killer out for revenge, stalkers, and ex-cons being released from prison to kill again. Lizzy has a number of enemies, and someone is following her.

In the meantime, business as usual. She is hired by a woman who suspects her high school classmates are being targeted, killed off one by one. They all have a common interest – they belonged to the Ambassador Club at a Sacramento High School, an elite group with a favorite pastime of bullying, raping, and tormenting students (these guys were pure evil). You better be careful, as your enemies will track you down years later.

Now decades later, someone is out for revenge and is quite clever; as each person is killed off and the list is getting shorter, as the bodies pile up. Before the client dies, she leaves Lizzy a list with the names of the students they tormented, and the members of the club. The killer has to be a chemist, as often there is food involved and poisons - always one step ahead. The killer likes to stick to her list as OCD, striking through each name as they are eliminated with careful and precise execution.

In addition to all the drama, one of Lizzy’s girls in her protection class is missing and she thinks the kidnapper, is using Shelby to lure her out, in order to move in for the kill.

The killer and the girls may have more in common than they think. Taking out the bad guys- for justice when the legal system, does not always work. They are tired of people hurting them and being the victim. Now the Lizzy Gardner girls are developing ten known criminals to watch . . Leading us into the next book.

As always, there are many cases which connect for a heart-pounding race against time, full of wit, humor, sarcasm, and evil. I loved the banter between the killer and her conscience, making you laugh out loud.

After reading, OBSESSED (Book 4), was excited to catch up with Lizzy and the gals -was not disappointed; racing to finish before bed. I really enjoy TR Ragan's style and her wit. Love the three gals living and working together (Charlie's Angels).

Lizzy, Haley, and Kitally may need to recruit, Jenny to help them out with their mission, to rid the world of the bad guys-- "she definitely has some tricks up her sleeves".

Looking forward to the next in the series. Evil Never Dies (The Lizzy Gardner Series Book #6). Cannot wait to see what is next for this group! This series is so good, may have to back and read books 1-3, which I missed. Highly recommend, if you love fast-paced complex crime thrillers.

Judith D. Collins Must Read Books

Book Review: Almost Dead by T.R. Ragan

Rating:

Received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

T.R. Ragan, I'm really mad at you. This is one of my favorite little known series and this book just upset me on a lot of levels. I'm not going to add spoilers because that's not my thing but I was really disappointed with every aspect of this story and have to think a lot about my star rating. If the intent was to make the reader angry and keep the book in the reader's mind, then well done.

These novels started dark and have only got darker; the murders and the cases are no more horrific, the events ever more unsettling. Once more, multiple story lines are juggled here and yet all have equal prominence. Interestingly there are two key plotlines of major importance, one being the steady picking off of old high school bullies and tormenters, the other a man with a grudge to pick with Lizzy.

All the while this is ongoing, Lizzy has her own personal grief and heartache to work through, along with some complex issues about the right to die with dignity versus parental wishes for a miracle. Yet of course her investigative agency is still ticking along as normal with compensation fraud and other cases tying up time whilst bringing in money. When one of her clients turns up dead however, Lizzy finds herself trying to unravel what appears to be an extremely clever mass murder set-up.

This is a deeply unsettling novel with some heart breaking twists and turns. I've raced through this series and will undoubtedly move onto the finale. It looks like the tone will only continue to creep down into further dark recesses though and I'm interested to see how Ragen expands on the potential vigilante aspect that has now been running since the second novel in one form or another.

Still not happy with the quick climax, but I'm on board for more.