Judas Kiss

Judas Kiss by J.T. Ellison

Age: Adult
Category: Mystery & Crime
Rating: 4 stars

Helen Thinks: Here we are with the third trip to Nashville with DI Taylor Jackson in Judas Kiss. Just back from her trip in Italy with handsome FBI boyfriend, Baldwin, Taylor is called to a crime scene. As if it's not bad enough that the victim is seven months pregnant, the scene is accentuated with the tiny red footprints where her daughter has been running roaming around the house waiting for her Mother's body to be found. Before long, the whole thing is a media frenzy and things don't go any smoother when videos of Jackson in compromising positions with her ex-partner come to light on the internet just as Baldwin is called away to deal with a case for the FBI.

Once again, Ellison shows the reader just how manic a detective's life can be with more than one case load as well as juggling their own personal lives with their careers. Taylor's detective's are the ones that find the 'sordid' videos online and respect her enough to immediately stop watching as well as let her know. Ellison writes the bond between the detective's superbly and makes the reader believe that these people are not a family by blood but still family all the same. One of my highlights of this novel is that Ellison introduces new characters to this series flawlessly such as the internal affairs officer that is now 'gunning' for Jackson.

The highlight of book three is that we finally get to see Baldwin work solo as an FBI agent and not as a consultant with Taylor and the Nashville police force. I appreciate that local police force do sometimes get a lot of input from the FBI but I was starting to bore of Baldwin constantly being called in just as a backdrop and a great access point for sources on Taylor’s cases.

Ellison delivers fast paced cases, a combination of characters that have you feeling their pain as well as laughing along and also an explosive cliff hanger that has me reaching for the next book as soon as the last word has been read.