Lori Anderson is as tough as they come, managing to keep her career as a fearless Florida bounty hunter separate from her role as single mother to nine-year-old Dakota, who suffers from leukaemia. But when the hospital bills start to rack up, she has no choice but to take her daughter along on a job that will make her a fast buck. And that’s when things start to go wrong. The fugitive she’s assigned to haul back to court is none other than JT, Lori’s former mentor – the man who taught her everything she knows … the man who also knows the secrets of her murky past.
Not only is JT fighting a child exploitation racket operating out of one of Florida’s biggest theme parks, Winter Wonderland, a place where ‘bad things never happen’, but he’s also mixed up with the powerful Miami Mob. With two fearsome foes on their tails, just three days to get JT back to Florida, and her daughter to protect, Lori has her work cut out for her. When they’re ambushed at a gas station, the stakes go from high to stratospheric, and things become personal.
If I have one thing to say about Steph Broadribb’s Deep Down Dead, it’d be this: Go read it.
Featuring a kick-ass heroine, Deep Down Dead is a helter-skelter thrill ride pretty much from the off. Lori is unusual in many ways, but mostly because she’s that rarity in thriller books: she’s *interesting*. So often in thrillers you get these cookie-cutter characters, seen one, seem them all. I’ve never seen anyone quite like Lori though.
It’s a cat and mouse game all the way, when what appears to be a simple job goes south in a spectacular fashion. I love nothing more than a good thriller, and Steph has delivered a *great* thriller, steeped in Americana with settings and characters which feel completely authentic and with a plot which insists that you don’t put it down. I read this on holiday recently and found myself staying up entirely too late to read just one more chapter. I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next.
Deep Down Dead by Steph Broadribb (@crimethrillgirl) is out now from Orenda Books. You can find out more on Steph’s website, crimethrillergirl.com
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