Collision of Lies

TOMTHREADGILL

Stats for my copy: Trade paperback, Revell, 2020.

How acquired: Revell Reads.

First line: If they were still arguing, she'd call the cops then.

(For the Goodreads synopsis, scroll to the bottom of this post.)

My thoughts: Another Revell publication that sucked me in practically from the first page and kept me engrossed to the end. Detective Amara Alvarez spends her days investigating property crimes, but her goal is to investigate the real cases - homicides. Through fate, she finds herself embroiled in investigating an old case, where a school bus crashed into a train, killing the driver and several children. The mother of one of those kids is convinced her son is still alive after she receives a text message supposedly from her son. Even when Amara isn't sure there is a case and that it's a waste of time, she's unable to ignore or completely turn away the distraught mother and her husband. She gets more than she bargained for, in a big way.

I admired Amara and her dogged determination. And the other characters were pretty great as well, especially her partner Wiley, and the homicide detective who sort of takes her under his wing, Starsky, although as far as I remember she never found out why everyone calls him Starsky. And then there's her roommate, Larry, an iguana! We didn't spend a lot of time at Amara's home, but I would've like to have more of Larry.

The plot is fast paced, and while there are a lot of characters involved, especially as they get deeper and deeper into reinvestigating the school bus/train incident, I didn't have trouble keeping everyone straight for the most part. Eventually Amara is partnered up with a Texas Ranger, Sara Colby, and I really enjoyed their interactions, not to mention Sara and the ME, who was quite an interesting character – a bit of a know it all but in an amusing, not insufferable way.

Lots of twists and turns - I couldn't predict where the story was going. Some tense scenes towards the end, a very satisfying resolution, all in all a intricately plotted suspense story. While waiting for the next Amara Alvarez book to come out (and hoping it will include lots of Starsky!), I'll have to look for the author's other series featuring FBI Agent Jeremy Winter.

Goodreads synopsis: Three years ago, a collision between a fast-moving freight train and a school bus full of kids led to devastation and grief on an unimaginable scale. But a fresh clue leads San Antonio police detective Amara Alvarez to the unlikely conclusion that one of the children may still be alive. If she's correct, everything law enforcement believes about the accident is a lie.

With time running out, Amara must convince others--and herself--that despite all evidence to the contrary, the boy lives. And she will do everything in her power to bring him home.

A fresh voice in suspense, Tom Threadgill will have you questioning everything as you fly through the pages of this enthralling story.