19 Souls

by J.D. Allen

Overview

Her bloody finger left a translucent smear on the phone screen as she glanced through the list of private investigators in Vegas. Her stained nail came to rest on Sin City Investigations.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781648750373
Publisher:	Severn River Publishing
Publication date:	10/27/2020
Series:	Sin City Investigation , #1
Pages:	342
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.76(d)

About the Author

J.D. Allen (Raleigh, NC) earned a degree in forensic anthropology and creative writing from Ohio State University. She’s also taught other writers on a variety of topics, including the basics of crime scene investigation and the art of public speaking.

Editorial Reviews

12/18/2017
At the start of Allen’s unimpressive first novel and series launch, a woman phones Las Vegas, Nev., PI Jim Bean, identifies herself as Cynthia Hodge, and asks for his help in finding her brother, former rodeo rider Dan Kent, who she claims has been missing for two years. The caller is actually Sophie Evers, a serial killer who has murdered Cynthia and assumed her identity. Sophie is obsessed with Dan, a childhood friend, and is determined to make him her own. The unwitting Jim takes the job and tracks down Dan in Utah. After realizing Sophie tricked him, Jim joins a police detective, an FBI agent, and a bounty hunter in an effort to locate her. Sophie is a hodgepodge of seemingly contradictory attributes: she can plan carefully but kills impulsively; she holds a steady job but has angry conversations with herself. Readers will hope Allen provides Jim with a more convincing villain in his next outing. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

"That wonderful and rare combination of high-speed suspense and complex, richly drawn characters will keep you on the edge of your seat."—Jeffery Deaver, New York Times bestselling author

19 Souls is one terrific read. With a great plot, engaging characters, and a crackling voice, this book has everything. I dare you to put it down after you start reading."—John Gilstrap, New York Times bestselling author

"The setup is so good, and the characters so hard to look away from...All in all, a fine thriller."—Booklist

"Twisty, authentic, and constantly surprising! JD Allen nails her debut with this top-notch thriller—it's gritty, smart and irresistible."—Hank Phillippi Ryan, nationally bestselling author

"Overall, a must read for thriller fans and perhaps the best PI story we have read this year so far."—Mystery Tribune

"Her plotting and pacing will keep you up long after Proust and Henry James have rocked you to sleep. Stay tuned for a series that promises many, many more troubled dreams."—Kirkus Reviews

"Bean's inner and outer dialogue is quick, snappy, and authentic to the profession. The pace is earnest, as leads, tips, and information eventually congeal into answers; final pages are highly suspenseful and dramatic. 19 Souls introduces a memorable PI, grappling with a past he's not reconciled to."—Foreword Reviews

"This is an unflinchingly gritty tale, wonderfully written and wholly satisfying."—Bolo Books

 

From the Publisher

2017-10-10
A Las Vegas private eye tangles with a jezebel as resourceful as she is murderous in this scorchingly one-dimensional series kickoff.Worried that her brother, Dan, has run off with the nest egg needed to keep their Alzheimer's-stricken mother, Lynette, ensconced in the Silver Hills nursing home, Cynthia Hodge directs Jim Bean, of Sin City Investigations: "Don't contact him. Just find him." The catch is that Jim's client isn't really Cindy Hodge; she's Sophie Ryan Evers, a femme fatale whose crush on Dan, nurtured ever since her preteen years, is coupled with a decidedly sociopathic personality that's already led her to kill 11 people—12 if you count Cindy. In the most pleasingly original part of this tale, its rapid-fire first movement, Jim works every lead he can think of to find Dan Hodge, who seems to have vanished seven years ago after dropping out of college to become a rodeo rider, while his client follows him, second-guesses him, seduces him, and generally plots rings around him. Once Jim catches up with Dan, who quickly disillusions him about the true identity of his client, the story settles into an altogether more familiar groove: Jim teams up with fellow private eye Oscar Olsen and FBI agent Ava Webb to move the surviving Hodges into a safe house Sophie promptly identifies, then both sides hunker down for an extended cat-and-mouse game whose only certainty is foretold in the novel's title, which announces the final body count.Allen can't write a memorable sentence to save her life, but her plotting and pacing will keep you up long after Proust and Henry James have rocked you to sleep. Stay tuned for a series that promises many, many more troubled dreams.

Kirkus Reviews