The Wrong Victim by Allison Brennan
Quinn & Costa series #3. Police procedural thriller with a bit of romance. Can be read as a stand-alone but don’t miss the first two books.
A bomb explodes on a sunset cruise out of Friday Harbor in the San Juan islands. Everyone on board is dead which brings the FBI mobile unit to the small island. Quinn, Costa and team investigate with the help of local authorities as more people die. There is a murderer using C4 and they need to find out who it is before the next victim is killed.

Propulsive thriller tracking down the clues of the killer by Matt, Kara and the rest of the FBI team as they find more suspects. And conflict now within the team as a psychologist joins the mobile unit. She has history with Matt and doesn’t like Kara.

The next book was just released so diving right in. ( )

Another exciting read from Allison Brennan. When you assemble a team of experts, you can't expect them to immediately get along. Kara Quinn is still angry that she can't return to her job as a LA undercover detective and is confused by her secret relationship with her boss, Matt Costas. Combine this with a series of bombings, the death of a retired FBI agent, and a cold case, and there's enough to keep you turning the pages until the end!

Thanks to Harlequin Trade Publishing for giving access to a digital ARC via NetGalley.

This is Book 3 of the Quinn and Costa series. In this novel, a bomb explodes on a boat killing 9 people. The FBI team is called to investigate. The investigation initially focuses on an environmental group, but things become more complicated as there are more deaths.
I haven’t read the first 2 books, but other than background, I don’t think it mattered. However, I do think there was some repetition in the book which could have been edited. I think I would enjoy reading the first 2 books, and following the series. ( )

Overall
The Wrong Victim is the third in the Quinn and Costa Thriller series. This one takes the team to the San Juan Islands archipelago in Washington. They’re there to investigate a charter boat bombing that killed a retired FBI agent, who was still looking into a cold case that haunted him, as well as a very wealthy man who was married to a much younger woman his kids generally hated. It was fantastic to see the team really come together, and equally fun to watch the tension between Kara and Catherine as the two are forced to work closely for the first time. The mystery was twisty, but the title felt a little unfortunate as it pointed me to what was really going on too early in the story as I enjoy being the last one to figure things out, so it was definitely a minus to me. But The Wrong Victim is probably my favorite of the series so far, and I’m really starting to get to know and enjoy the team.

Extended Thoughts
A charter boat bombing that killed nine including retired FBI agent Neil Devereaux and a very wealthy man married to a younger woman draws FBI agent Mathias Costa and his Mobile Response Team to the San Juan Islands in Washington. Linking up with the local law enforcement, Matt, Kara Quinn, and the rest of the team follow every lead, investigate every possible motive, and puzzle through the closed cases Neil had been re-investigating. But, the further they dig, the more bodies they find and the more complicated the case gets.

I don’t know whether the series, the author, or I have hit our stride, but, after feeling kind of meh about the first two books, I really, really enjoyed this one. In this third book of the series, the team is starting to gel together, but some serious friction is introduced that really had me interested and invested. The case itself was more interesting to me than the previous two, but this one almost felt too easy to me. Still, I really enjoyed reading this one and, for once, am looking forward to the next one.

My favorite part of The Wrong Victim was the team. Matt is the dependable leader, except he’s torn between the woman he’s involved with and his closest friend. Kara doesn’t really feel like she belongs even though the team relies on her as an experienced undercover cop, and she’s involved with Matt and they’re trying to keep it under wraps. But, being on loan to the FBI from the LAPD indefinitely would do that to her. Ryder Kim may be young, but he’s capable and can dig out just about anything the team needs. Jim is their older, experienced medical expert who appears to be grandfatherly, but will do his job perfectly to a T. Michael Harris is unflappable as a former Navy Seal, solid and tough and completely upright. Catherine is the behavior analyst who knows Matt better than anyone and is used to being the smartest person in the room. It’s only inevitable that, as the team gels, friction develops between Kara and Catherine. I loved every moment of it, seeing both points of view and both wanting them to work it out and just not work it out to draw out the fun tension. The development of their relationship was really wonderful, and I loved how the team evolved as a whole, coming to rely on each other while also being able to just hang out together. The care and concern they showed for each other was wonderful, and I loved that they each had important jobs so none of them was ever left out.

One of the things I really enjoy about this series, the one thing that has me coming back to it, is the romance brewing between Matt and Kara. It’s not perfect and the way it works is complicated, but that underlying tension is fun. The Wrong Victim did bring up some things that had always been more on the fringes, but now I really want to find out what happens next. Matt and Kara are both so stubborn and they both have a good idea of what they want and don’t want. I look forward to seeing how it ultimately plays out.

The one thing that really let me down was the return to Washington. It’s a completely different location than in the first book, but I was disappointed that, after Arizona, they were back to Washington. There are so many small towns and rural locations in the country that it was a little hard for me to get over. Still, I really liked the San Juan Islands. The small town politics and the environmental concerns were at play and did add a fun layer, but I really wanted to go somewhere else. On the other hand, exploring the San Juan Island was really nice and I felt like I was wandering around there with the characters. I liked the Island Protectors environmental group that just kept popping up, though I was disappointed with the way that story progressed. It did add some nice depth to the location, and the Fish & Brew sounded like a really fun place to eat and hang out.

The case the team was investigating felt both more straight forward than the first two, but also complicated and layered at the same time. There was no point of their investigation where I felt bored, though I was disappointed when characters started dropping out of the story. I think, with some careful attention, just watching who stayed in the narrative and who didn’t helped revealed whodunit and how different cases wound together. I also felt the title of the book was a little unfortunate as it led me down the right path too early on. I enjoy being the last one to figure it out, so wasn’t thrilled that I did start to figure it out before the team did. Some of the hints just felt a little too clunky and too liberally sprinkled in. But I liked how they played out, liked how the psyches of the characters played into it. It was great to see Catherine and Kara in action as they’re both involved in reading people. The end was a bit shocking to me, but in a thrilling way, though I did feel like it took quite a while to fully unravel. About three-quarters of the way through I was starting to get impatient for it to just wrap up.

I must say the beginning was off to a rough start for me. The writing just didn’t flow well and the blocks of informative text about the team and their history just felt clunky and amateurish. It just didn’t flow well, so it was difficult for me to get into the story. But, once the background was established, it flowed much better and became easier to read and easier to become invested in the story. Unlike the previous two books, which felt a bit clunky and cumbersome, I only felt that way during the first few chapters, so, if the rest of the series is like this novel, I think I can live with it.

The Wrong Victim felt a little unfortunately titled, but I had a lot of fun reading it. Most of it was fun and fast-paced with twists and turns. There were a lot of things I wasn’t expecting, but I was a little disappointed things began to clear up around the halfway point. Still, there are a lot of good things peppered throughout and I did really enjoy how it ended and wrapped up. It was neat and fraught with questions at the same time. For me, this was definitely the best of the series so far, and I’m finally excited to see what’s next.

Thank you to Justine Sha at MIRA for a review copy and the opportunity to take part in the book blog tour for The Wrong Victim. All opinions expressed are my own. ( )

The Wrong Victim by Allison Brennan
Quinn & Costa #3

Another great addition to this series – thoroughly enjoyed this book and look forward to more!

What I liked:
* Kara Quinn: undercover agent for LAPD on loan to the FBI, reads people well, daughter of parents who earned a living working a con, a bit of a renegade, capable, caring, cares for Matt, a bit at loose ends from time to time
* Matt Costa: in charge of the FBI Mobile Response Team, intelligent, good leader, hand picked the team he works with, cares deeply for Kara, might have work-love conflicts to deal with in the future
* The team: getting to know them better was interesting although there is one that grates a great deal
* The skillset that the team members bring to the table
* The small town setting
* The police procedural aspects of the story
* The introduction to and a bit of information about the victims of the bombing received in the first chapter
* The red herrings, twists, turns and interesting side stories
* Wondering how the relationship between Costa and Quinn can work if there are rules against dating team members when working for the FBI
* Finding out the “why” of some of the crimes that were committed
* Wondering what will happen next

What I didn’t like:
* The criminals and their crimes – I know that there are people in the world like them but hope to never encounter them personally
* The senseless loss of life that occurred in this book – necessary for the story but it made me sad
* Strong dislike for one member of the team…not sure if Catherine will redeem herself or not if she remains part of the team
* Having to wait to see what will happen next

Did I enjoy this book? Yes
Would I read more of this series? Definitely

Thank you to NetGalley and HQN-Mira for the ARC – This is my honest review.

4-5 Stars ( )