One murder.
A hunt for the Dutchman's Lost Gold Mine becomes a race of survival.
Former Army MP Landry Parker fell into the recovery specialist role quite by accident—to help her ailing father. Now that she’s on her own, she is determined to prove herself and honor her family legacy.
After being shot in the line of duty, former police officer Nickolai Baptiste became a recovery specialist, and he’s good at his job—maybe even the best.
A potential client pits Landry and Nickolai against one another to find the Dutchman’s Lost Gold Mine map that was stolen from her murdered husband, and the potential payday is too enticing to pass up. The trail takes them from New Orleans to Weaver’s Needle in Arizona where legend claims the mine is hidden. Landry and Nickolai are no strangers to adventure, but the unlikely partners quickly discover there’s someone after the treasure and there are those who want to ensure the lost mine in Arizona’s Superstition Mountain stays lost forever.
Can Landry and Nickolai work together despite their distrust of each other to save the legend before more innocent lives are lost? Will they find the real treasure isn’t the gold, but something more valuable. . .true love and understanding?
I'm really struggling with this review. The description grabbed my attention when I saw it available on NetGalley. Seriously? It's a mystery people! What it had it description however left it lacking in other areas. I choose to read through some other reviews for a bit of inspiration in getting my thoughts to screen. And realizing that I really need to trim my fingernails to help cut down on the typos! I digress. I found reviews I agreed with wholeheartedly. I found reviews that I'm not sure we read the same book. I found reviews that brought up issues I'd never thought about. And then I realized that I was simply procrastinating. I needed to write this review, I was just hesitant to do so because I knew there wouldn't be a good way to get my thoughts to the screen. I'm pretty sure it's all gonna come out sideways and I'm sorta OK with that.
I want to end on the positive so I'm going to cram a lot of drawbacks here in the middle. Pace. The book had a few pacing issues. It seemed to drag along, throw in unnecessary details, and things that could have built suspense didn't quite show up to the party. Tires and fires and brakes...weren't quite the oh my they needed to be. While these were dragging down the story the romance between the competitors and main characters was on FIRE! It was just a smidge too fast for me. I get that drama brings people together but I mean for gravy sake they didn't know each other, the are pitted against each other but the 'flame' appears in a week or so? Really? I don't think so!
Let's talk about faith for a moment. This is a Christian book from a Christian publisher. That doesn't mean I have huge expectations of faith at every corner, honestly it's hard to tastefully pull that off without feeling like you are being beaten with it. I have a couple problems with the faith elements in this book. First and foremost, the introduction of faith and basically the way it was addressed through easily the first half of the book felt awkward. It's wasn't just sorta sitting there and it wasn't just sorta discovered. It felt abrupt and awkward. It got better in the second half but it felt more like a Bible beating at that point because of the weak introduction earlier on. The other thing that sorta bothered me was the shaman angle with the Apache. Please, don't think I'm judging, as it is a huge part of our cultural history. The fact that it's there doesn't bother me in the slightest. The weird interspersed chapters of this spirit journey kinda bother me as they didn't connect anything until the end, by then it was too late to redeem them. What bothers me about them is that they carry the conclusion. What could have been a converging of faith and ideas became the opposite. I feel like the Apache vision overshadowed what God could have accomplished and detracted from any Christianity that could have been taken from the story.
All that said, if you are still with me, I did enjoy the story. Even through the bumps and bruises and potholes and awkwardness this book has the potential to be something amazing. In the right hands it will be a well loved story. The characters grew on me, the intrigue did develop and embrace me, and I have hope for the future of these characters and wouldn't mind another trip through the pages with them.
I was provided a complimentary copy of this book by NetGalley. I was not compensated for this review and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own. I was not required to write a positive review.
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
About Robin Caroll
Robin’s passion has always been to tell stories to entertain others and come alongside them on their faith journey—aspects Robin weaves into each of her 26 published novels.
When she isn’t writing, Robin spends quality time with her husband of twenty-six years, her three beautiful daughters and two handsome grandsons, and their character-filled pets at home.
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Google + | Pinterest | Instagram | Goodreads
No comments