Deadly Stakes
A Novel
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
In this “heart-stopping” (Publishers Weekly) page-turner from New York Times bestselling author J.A. Jance, Ali Reynolds finds herself working against the police to clear two innocent names.
Former reporter Ali Reynolds finds herself working against the police to add up the clues that connect one frightened teenager, two dead bodies, and $300,000...with the body count rising.
Hired to investigate the grisly murder of a gold-digging divorcée on behalf of the woman accused of the crime, Ali Reynolds is immediately drawn to the case of the secretive teenager who found the body. A. J. Sanders was in the Camp Verde desert to retrieve a mystery box buried by his absent father—a box that turns out to be filled with hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of poker chips. When a second body is found in the desert, it seems the three cases are more closely related than anyone could have imagined. Though Ali’s friends in the police department grow increasingly irritated by her involvement, Ali must stop a ruthless killer from claiming another victim...before she is lost in this game of deadly stakes.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Bestseller Jance's busy eighth Ali Reynolds thriller (after 2012's Left for Dead) takes the former newscaster from Sedona, Ariz., to Phoenix, where friend Brenda Riley is filming a story on cyberstalker Richard Lowensdale, whom Reynolds helped bring down in 2011's Fatal Error. When circumstances land Lynn Martinson, one of Lowensdale's victims, in another pickle, Martinson's mother recommends she turn to Reynolds for help. But Martinson and boyfriend Chip Ralston soon find themselves in worse trouble after the discovery of the body of Ralston's avaricious ex-wife, Gemma Ralston. The discovery of a second body near the first raises puzzling questions about possible connections between the victims. Meanwhile, high school senior A.J. Sanders, who anonymously reported Gemma's death, also seeks Reynolds help as he tries to avoid suspicion. Series fans will welcome the familiar supporting cast, including computer nerd Stuart Ramey and boyfriend B. Simpson, but awkwardly contrived linkages and a lack of narrative drive make this a lesser effort.
