Book Review: Touch and Go by Lisa Gardner

Hello, Fellow Book Worms and Book Dragons!

  Tessa Leoni was a complicated woman with a boat load of secrets in Love You More. Her race against time to exonerate herself from murder charges, and to find her kidnapped daughter made for quite the page-turner. Now Tessa's story continues and she is about to meet her match in the form of a Northern New Hampshire law enforcer.

 
  Touch and Go is the second book in the popular Tessa Leoni series by Lisa Gardner. The hardcover edition that I read was published by Dutton books, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Spinning off from the Detective Warren series, Tessa Leoni is now working as an investigator for Northledge Investigations, and her next assignment is to find out who kidnapped the CEO of Denbe Construction and his family. Along the way she is reunited briefly with Sergeant Detective D.D. Warren and her partners, Neil and Phil. Sharing the crime scene she notices confetti from a taser and the family's belongings stacked in the kitchen. The expensive home is a fortress with state-of-the-art security, which begs the question: how did the kidnappers enter the home? If Justin and Libby Denbe and their teenage daughter, Ashlyn, are kidnapped for ransom, then why has there not been a demand for money?   

  Meanwhile hundreds of miles away in the wilds of Northern New Hampshire, Officer Wyatt Foster gets the call that there has been a kidnapping that may at one point enter his area. His ex, FBI Special Agent Nicole Adams, is heading the case that now has been commandeered by the Feds. Setting their past aside, he aids the network of police and FBI that are sent out to scour the mountainous region.  But Wyatt needs to see for himself where the family was taken, and to meet the acting head of Denbe Construction. If he is to help solve this, he needs to be more hands on, which means a Boston trip is in order. It is there that he meets Tessa Leoni for the first time.

  With corporate espionage, ruthless kidnappers, and a family filled with secrets, can Tess Leoni find the Denbes before they are either ransomed or killed? It will be touch and go, but she is up to the task.

  Touch and Go was a fun, thrilling tale of domestic tangles of the corporate rich. It weaved and darted between narratives quickly, giving us an inside view into the lives of the Denbe clan through the eyes of Justin's wife, Libby. I liked how Tessa's issues from Love You More were touched upon, but not overly stated. The novel offered up a quiet, new life for Tessa and her daughter, Sophie, and their live-in housekeeper, Mrs. Ennis. And Gardner was determined to make readers like Wyatt Foster and she succeeded. He was a warm and rugged man whose life as a police officer was taken seriously. His side-kick, Kevin, read like Robin from the 1966 Batman series, and was equally as endearing. The kidnappers were very intense and often scary. My favorite foil for the Denbe family was Mick. His insanity led to many tension-filled moments during the kidnapping. My most pleasant surprise was Sophie. She may be still working through the events of her kidnapping, but they never stopped her from caring about the Denbes, and giving her mother some sound advice. That little girl was incredible through this.

  I read Touch and Go in part with the narration of actress, Elisabeth Rodgers. I enjoyed her performance of this book. Her voice was easy to listen to, and she did a wonderful job conveying the emotions of Gardner's cast of characters. I would not mind hearing another of her performances.

  I gave Touch and Go four out of five stars. I was entertained and the story was fun read. The ending was a huge surprise, and I loved the mystery of it. As a former resident of New Hampshire, I appreciated the change in scenery, and realistic approach to characters from that area. Tessa Leoni made an awesome come back into the world of Lisa Gardner, and I look forward to continuing Tessa and Wyatt's adventures in Crash and Burn.

  Have fun reading this week, and let me know in the comments what you are reading.

 
   Also please follow me on my social media platforms, and enjoy shopping with me at eBay and the Book Depository. I am also looking for contributions to open my business. Please visit my GoFundMe page if you wish to help me out.
 
  Because there is always time to read,
   Xepherus3 



At Book Depository: http://www.bookdepository.com/?a_aid=Xepherus3

 At eBay: http://stores.ebay.com/xepherusstudios

At Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/XepherusStudios

At Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/11975160-xepherus3

 At GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/XepherusStudios

At RedBubble: http://www.redbubble.com/people/xepherus3

At Twitter: https://twitter.com/XepherusStudios

My Amazon Wish List: https://amzn.com/w/3J58FXCH0Y44F


All written content and top logo (c) Copyright 2018 by Thomas Bahr II
Book Cover is (c) Copyright by the publisher