Sunday 13 August 2017

Book Review - Guilt Game by L.J. Sellers

Amazon UK
Title: Guilt Game
Author: L.J. Sellers
Format reviewed: Ebook
Source: Netgalley
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Publication Date: 6th June 2017
Rating: 5 Stars


Roxanne MacFarlane is the Extractor—a former CIA agent who specializes in rescuing people from dangerous situations. She lives on the edge and works outside the law, but desperate families know she’s the only operative who can bring their missing loved ones home. Driven by guilt over the loss of her sister to a polygamous cult, she will stop at nothing to save her clients.

When Dave and Jenny Carson ask her to find their daughter, Emma, and extract her from a charismatic cult leader who preys on young women with guilt issues, Rox is eager to help them. But the experimental treatment she just started in order to improve her atypical brain patterns forces her to face conflicting newfound emotions while working feverishly to find the secret compound and craft a strategy to get Emma out.

When the bodies of young women who match Emma’s description turn up, Rox must fast-forward her plans. But the situation is more complicated and dangerous than she realizes, and her own life is soon in jeopardy. Can Rox save Emma and bring down a ruthless predator before more young women fall victim?

To me the sign of a good book is one you can read in only two sittings and spend the time you aren't reading it thinking about it, and Guilt Game for me was just that book. I was completely intrigued and hooked from the second I understood just what Roxanne's job was, to the moment it finished. 

In fact I'm already hoping that this is the first of a new series, as I would love to see more from Roxanne. For she is an Extractor - someone who tries to extract people either from abusive parents, or from cults, or other dangerous situations. She needs to come up with a plan that gets her into as little trouble as possible, while fulfilling the wishes of her client, to get a loved one to safety. 

The case this book focuses on is tricky as its trying to get a young girl away from a cult. The cult seems to prey on women which suffer from huge amounts of guilt and thus Emma was a prime target for them. Her parents just want her home safely, and its up to Roxanne, or Karina as she is known for work, to try and find out everything she can about the cult leader and how it operates. 

Rox isn't on her own completely she has a step dad who is an ex-cop and her currently boyfriend is with the police working on a large case of his own. Rox is also slightly different from "normal" people and has just started a magnetic therapy treatment to try to get her brain patterns to become more regular. You can see after each session slight changes in her personality, which I found quite interesting. 

Guilt Game is certainly a different take on a thriller, but it is now less compulsive. I was really concerned for the cult members, curious as to the sections focusing on the leader, and generally loved the investigating and thought processes Roxanne had. 

I thoroughly enjoyed Guilt Game where the action ramped up as the story progressed leaving me surprised with the direction of the ending.  Yet another great book from the talented L.J. Sellers. 

Thank you to Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily. 

No comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...