Lori Lacefield

I received this book directly from the author as part of her advance reader team in exchange for an honest review. This review is my own opinion.
This is the third book in the FBI Profiler series and I have not read the first two. I did not feel like I was missing anything from not having read the first two – except maybe some good stories.
Frankie is a profiler with the FBI and works in North Carolina. She is called out to the scene of a lynching. The body is of a man who had started an activist organization. There is little evidence at the scene but they soon discover that a white supremacist group was behind the crime.
Following this attack, a race war begins in the area around Charlotte with Frankie and her team right in the middle. As they race to find out who is behind these events, Frankie struggles to keep her emotions in check.
This is an intense read but very well done and the author keeps you guessing as to who is pulling the strings behind these acts.… (más)

Frankie and her partner Ben are tasked with helping the local police department investigate the murder of the DA's daughter. Deke and Bragg are the local detectives on the case they are combining forces with. Plenty of suspects and diversions make Frankie question her profiling abilities along with a simmering attraction between her and Deke. Convenient evidence, lies, misdirection, and alibi's that just don't match up have the four of them trying to sift between truths and lies. Ben is also working on another case involving financial scams and He & Frankie use their husband and wife cover to find out who the "Imposter" is while trying to bring justice the the murdered. Twisty and couldn't put down… (más)

Frankie is on the case linking disappearing women who led happy lives to just up and leave with their new beau. After almost dying in the last book, she further endangers herself by going rogue again while trying to catch the killer and having an attraction to two of the suspects. Her partner is beside himself trying to reign her in and that puts a strain on their partnership. Not everything is as it seems when Frankie is thrust into a life and death situation that puts her skills to the test. This book wasn't as good as the first one. Frankie gets on one track and expects everyone else to follow her and not question her profiles and she keeps getting acquainted and attracted to suspects. I will read the next one to see where it leads.… (más)

The Fire Keeper is a fascinating thriller, with one foot in the future of crime fighting and another foot in the past generations of the Cherokee people's religious traditions.

Special agents Ben Andrews and Frankie Johnson are called to the Nantahala forests in North Carolina when the remains of a body, burnt in an apparent sacrifice, are found.

Chief Red Crow, head of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, lives in the Quolla Boundaries, lands paid for by the Tribe. Not only is he horrified by the murder, but as the investigation proceeds, another child goes missing.

Walking Stick, the tribe's medicine man, reveals that he has been teaching a young man the religious tradition of Keetowah, the sacred job of the Fire Keeper. He tells Ben and Frankie that this man took the teachings too far, and fears he may be at fault.

Keetowah, based upon the four directions, East, South, West and North and the seven Cherokee clans are represented in ceremony by a base of four wooden logs in a square and seven stations around the square. Then, a bed for offerings to the Sacred fire is built on a platform over the fire.

Ben, Frankie, Red Crow, Walking Stick and eventually the members of the Western Tribe of Cherokee Indians are inexorably drawn into the web of deceit, trying to prevent the murder of the next innocent young person.

The Fire Keeper is frightening, mesmerizing, rich in Cherokee lore and a very realistic example of what can happen when idealism becomes obsession. 5 star book and highly recommended.… (más)