Kill Romeo: 2 (Freddy Ferguson)

In Kill Romeo, author Diamond combines two of his lead characters from past novels into yet another first-rate detective mystery. Freddy Ferguson is a former boxer turned private investigator, a tough guy whose biggest fear is his own feelings. Claire Chastain is a former corporate analyst, also turned private investigator, brilliant, beautiful, and tough as nails. She just joined Freddy’s D.C. firm on a trial basis.Freddy’s on a routine assignment in the Virginia mountains when he finds a woman’s body deep in the woods while taking a walk. Against his will, he’s drawn into a search to identify the mysterious woman and find her killer. Clues lead him to South Florida, where he discovers the woman’s past includes a mobster father, who makes Freddy one of those mobster offers that can’t be refused. Find her killer and … [well, no spoilers].The trail of pursuit leads to Seattle and a tangled web of international espionage. Throughout the book, Freddy struggles with his feelings for Claire. He’s falling for her bigtime, but she’s a colleague, and looks up to him as a mentor. An honorable person, Freddy tells himself he’s not allowed to have feelings like that, so he smothers them, creating an internal conflict that ticks like a time bomb. When Claire gets called to Seattle to help with the case, and drawn into danger, it becomes harder and harder to keep his feelings separate from the business at hand.Diamond is a master of character development, a talent that sparkles and shines throughout the book. Freddy in particular is one of the most likeable detectives in fiction. An action-packed page-turner filled with adventure, intrigue, and a tension-laced side-serving of romance.

On another job Freddy finds a young woman's body and can't turn away from finding out who she is and what happened to put her into the woods in a storm. It starts out with his curiosity and turns into a job he can't turn down with a hefty cash pay ticket at the end after working with both ends of the legal spectrum to find her Romeo. He also has woman trouble with their new recruit who he feels an attraction to but is afraid to show it being her prospective boss. The case draws them together and there's a happy ever after so all's good. Plenty of humour and pathos, characters who make the story fun to read and a plot that keeps you interested to the end.

Excellent main character. Very likeable. Enjoyable reading. I highly recommend and I am looking forward to reading the next one.

This is an enjoyable thriller with a good strong plot. I did think the main character Freddy was rather too emotional about his romantic life and did overthink things too much, but the crime story keeps you turning the pages, and the ending is great.

This was a good read. It contained suspense, romance, A very good flow of the different elements of the crime, identifying the killer, the investigation, solving the murder and hitting me with the conclusion I wasn’t expecting, but it made me smile in the end