Up Close by Danielle Girard Book Review and Release Day

 

I received a gifted copy and am providing a review. 

This is book three in the Badlands series, book one being White Out, book two being Far Gone. In Up Close, Detective Kylie Milliard finds herself dealing with a few different things: The case she is currently working on involving local high school students; the job in Fargo; her feelings for a certain deputy and what she’s going to do about them.

While Kylie and Carl are trying to figure out what happened to Audrey, they go down a road that makes them question their own judgment - were they on the right track or not?

There are a couple of different story lines involved in the telling of this tale: The crime at hand, which leads to more clues and another, entirely separate crime, and the emotional rollercoaster that Kylie and Carl find themselves riding. Then, boom! PLOT TWIST. Didn’t see the first one happening … at all. Going along another chapter or two … then, boom! PLOT TWIST. That one I sure didn’t see coming. Twisted? A bit, sure. Totally unexpected? Absolutely.

If you like a series that has consistent characters, the Badlands Thriller Series is one to try. While this is a series, each book can be read as a standalone. Give ‘em a read, let me know what you think. If you like the Badlands series, give Ms. Girard’s Schwarzman series a read as well.

 

BLURB: It’s every parent’s worst nightmare.

In only a few months, the small town of Hagen has lost two high school seniors, both under strange circumstances. When a third senior, the mayor’s son, drives through the plate glass window of the town’s diner and ends up in a coma, the deaths no longer seem unrelated accidents. The town is paralyzed with fear. The police can find no good explanation. Other students deny any knowledge of what’s happening, but Detective Kylie Milliard is certain at least some are lying.

Hagen’s sole investigator, Kylie Milliard fears that something sinister is at play, but she can’t convince the town’s powers that be to take her concerns seriously. Mounting discord between herself and Hagen’s sheriff have her thinking that it may be time to leave Hagen for a bigger city and a new job, but she’s not going anywhere until she determines the connection between the self-destructive act of the mayor’s son and the two untimely deaths.

Whoever is behind the dangerous stunts doesn’t want to be discovered. To keep their secret, they’re willing to take out anyone who gets too close. With time running out before the next stunt, Kylie is in a race to solve the puzzle. She is all too clear that, until she does, no one—not the students, nor the town—is safe from danger.