Riptide

Riptide, the latest in the Sam McRae series by Debbi Mack, launc

Riptide, the latest in the Sam McRae series by Debbi Mack, launches its tough and sardonic protagonist head-first into a herd of sacred cows. Then it asks the reader not to get ran over by the stampede. The pay-off is a fast-paced, compelling crime novel that leaves the reader as buzzed and breathless as the Running of the Bulls.

The herd of sacred cows includes racism, illegal immigration, factory farming, human smuggling, xenophobia, overseas tax shelters, crooked charities and good ol' boy-ism. They're corraled just below the surface of a coastal city commited to looking the other way. Author Mack weaves these social issues tightly around a whodunit involving the framing of Sam's friend Jamila for the murder of a notorious local. The fact Jamila is black, not a local and a lawyer makes her an easy target in a town where all three of those qualities is a crime unto themselves.

Sam works to clear her friend's name, and unravels a larger criminal enterprise. Her investigation encounters the brutal conditions at a factory farm, the unapologetic mistreatment of immigrant workers, a double-standard for the rich of the city and so many conflicts of interest that nothing can be done about any of it.

If all this sounds like a bit much for one crime novel to tackle, you'd be right. Yet author Mack found a way to conduct each of these parts into a pitch-perfect symphony. From the first page to the last, the story never stumbled over itself. Mack's writing is tight as a drum. I slammed this novel in two days. I couldn't wait to turn the page.


Much of that has to do with the strong lead in Sam. She has a hard bark on her, but her sarcasm lightens the crushing seriousness of the mystery. Were it not for this balanced approach, the weight of the social issues in the story would diminish its readability. She's a hero to the story and the reader.

Get dragged under by Riptide. If you're not already a fan of the Sam McRae series, you will be after this read.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Want a good, fast-paced mystery? Once again, Debbi Mack has scor

Want a good, fast-paced mystery? Once again, Debbi Mack has scored a hit, this time with Riptide, the latest outing in the Sam McRae series. Here, attorney Stephanie Ann McRae (Sam) accompanies her friend Jamila, who is scheduled to speak at a Bar Association convention. Sam, who doesn't care about the boring convention, is looking forward to a nice vacation by the sea. It doesn't turn out that way, though, as Sam is roused in the middle of the night to see her friend taken for questioning in a murder.

Sam and Jamila had encountered the murder victim, a racist redneck, in previous confrontations, and when personal items of Jamila are found by the victim, the locals assume she is the killer. She hires a defense attorney, but they're up against a powerful, vengeful local family-- of which the deceased was a member.

Sam, of course, is not about to let her friend get railroaded, and starts investigating. Things just keep getting worse, as the weight of evidence mounts against her friend. Complicating things is the arrival of other people Sam has had encounters with-- some bad, some good, but of a nature Sam doesn't want to admit to.

As Sam tries to unravel the threads of what happened, she runs into a number of hostile folk, and eventually stumbles across a web of secrets and corruption. She is dogged in her pursuit of the truth, and manages to pry little bits of the puzzle out of reluctant witnesses and put the pieces together. She finds herself enmeshed in an alien world. Suffering hounding reporters, shadowy people following her, and malicious vandals, Sam tenaciously ferrets out the truth.

Another murder raises the stakes, and Sam must then race against time to expose the killer, as she herself comes under suspicion.

Sam is a great character, nice to the nice people, but sassy and snappy to the jerks. She has a quick temper for injustice, and is not afraid to speak her mind. She bribes, cajoles, and confronts people in an effort to find information. She even marches right into the lion's den, unstoppable in her quest to exonerate Jamila.

This is the third outing of Sam McRae. You'll want to read the first two, Identity Crisis and Least Wanted.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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