As a medical examiner, Samantha Owens knows her job is to make a certain sense of death with crisp methodology and precision instruments.But the day the Tennessee floods took her husband and children, the light vanished from Sam's life. She has been pulled into a suffocating grief no amount of workaholic ardor can penetrate—until she receives a peculiar call from Washington, D.C.
On the other end of the line is an old boyfriend's mother, asking Sam to do a second autopsy on her son. Eddie Donovan is officially the victim of a vicious carjacking, but under Sam's sharp eye the forensics tell a darker story. The ex-Ranger was murdered, though not for his car.
Forced to confront the burning memories and feelings about yet another loved one killed brutally, Sam loses herself in the mystery contained within Donovan's old notes. It leads her to the untouchable Xander, a soldier off-grid since his return from Afghanistan, and then to a series of brutal crimes stretching from that harsh mountainous war zone to this nation's capital. The tale told between the lines makes it clear that nobody's hands are clean, and that making sense of murder sometimes means putting yourself in the crosshairs of death.
From Goodreads:
Dr. Samantha Owens is starting over: new city, new job, new man, new life. She's trying to put some distance between herself and the devastating loss of her husband and children—but old hurts leave scars.Before she's even unpacked her office at Georgetown University's forensic pathology department, she's called to consult on a case that's rocked the capital and the country. An unknown pathogen released into the Washington Metro has caused nationwide panic. Three people died—just three.
A miracle and a puzzle.
Amid the media frenzy and Homeland Security alarm bells, Sam painstakingly dissects the lives of those three victims and makes an unsettling conclusion. This is no textbook terrorist causing mayhem with broad strokes, but an artist wielding a much finer, more pointed instrument of destruction. An assassin, whose motive is deeply personal and far from understandable.
Xander Whitfield, a former army ranger and Sam's new boyfriend, knows about seeing the world in shades of gray. About feeling compelled to do the wrong thing for the right reasons. Only his disturbing kinship with a killer can lead Sam to the truth-and once more into the line of fire.
From Goodreads:
Dear Dr. Owens,
If you are reading this letter, I am dead and I would be most grateful if you could solve my murder…
Forensic pathologist Dr. Samantha Owens thought life was finally returning to normal after she suffered a terrible personal loss. Settling into her new job at Georgetown University, the illusion is shattered when she receives a disturbing letter from a dead man imploring her to solve his murder. There's only one catch. Timothy Savage's death was so obviously the suicide of a demented individual that the case has been closed.
When Sam learns Savage left a will requesting she autopsy his body, she feels compelled to look into the case. Sam's own postmortem discovers clear signs that Savage was indeed murdered. And she finds DNA from a kidnapped child whose remains were recovered years earlier.
The investigation takes Sam into the shadows of a twenty-year-old mystery that must be solved to determine what really happened to Timothy Savage. Nothing about the case makes sense, but it is clear someone is unwilling to let anyone, especially Samantha Owens, discover the truth.
From Goodreads:
Critically acclaimed New York Times bestselling author J. T. Ellison delivers another riveting novel featuring the incomparable Dr. Samantha Owens
Waking to sirens in the night is hardly unusual for Samantha Owens. No longer a medical examiner, she doesn't lose sleep over them, but a routine police investigation in her neighborhood has her curious. When her homicide detective friend, Darren Fletcher, invites her to look over the evidence, she jumps at the chance and immediately realizes the crime scene has been staged. What seems to be a clear case of murder/suicide—a crime of passion—is anything but. The discovery of toxic substances in hidden vials indicates that something much more sinister is at play…
As Fletch and Sam try to understand what and who they are dealing with, they are summoned to a meeting at the State Department. High-level officials are interested in what they know and seem to be keeping secrets of their own. It's up to Sam and Fletch to uncover what lies behind the deception as the threat of bioterrorism is exposed, and her boyfriend, Xander Whitfield, may be in the line of fire.
Unsure who to trust, Sam and Fletch find themselves up against very powerful people at every stage in the investigation. No one is who they appear to be and with every minute that passes, the danger escalates. It's Sam's most complex case yet and the terrifying reality is beyond anything she could have imagined.
My first review of A Deeper Darkness, Edge of Black
My Review:
I just loved reading these books all together. I mean, I've read A Deeper Darkness and Edge of Black before, but they were almost a year apart, and then two more books have released since then. So yeah, really great to read them all together!
Sam goes through a lot in these books. She lost her whole family, and has some issues because of that, plus she kinda already had OCD before, but now it was worse, more fully fledged. Her hand washing gets better, but it doesn't fully go away, even though her life has gotten better.
Each of these mysteries deals with something different, and some really horrible issues, like terrorism, child abduction and rape, and others. And Sam, Xander and Fletch work to solve them, these weird cases that they seemed to be pulled into!
There were a number of characters that made an appearance in one book. And I really enjoyed them they had their role, I do wish we'd see the more important ones just a little bit more. There was a lot going on, and a lot of it was just the main 3 characters. Ah, well!
There were a few things that weren't really dealt with, like in the Taylor Jackson series, things ended, not quite resolved, and never really mentioned again. At least, not yet. Like, the death of the bad guy, and that the people were interested that the child was known as a liar. Yeah. I'd like to get some resolution there!
The ending of What Lies Behind, oh, wow, that was so evil! And we don't have a 5th book to deal with that! Hopefully it comes out soon, because I want to know how things are all going to work out there with the serial killer!
Such a great series, it's so fantastic, and I just need more!
Author: J.T. Ellison
Series: Dr. Sam Owen #1, 2, 3, 4
First Read: March 2nd, 2012, December 26th, 2012
Read: August 20th, 20th, 20th, 21st, 2017
Source: Ebook.bike, NetGalley/Bought
Reason Why: Because I love her books, and I'm rereading! And they're Prequel & Sequel Challenge 2017 Books! And When Shadows Fall is a RR Book, WoW Book and a WTC Book! And What Lies Behind is a RR Book!
Publisher: Mira
Published: April 17th 2012, November 13th 2012, February 25th 2014, May 26th 2015
A Deeper Darkness:
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| 5/5 Hearts |
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| 5/5 Books |
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| 5/5 Stars |
Edge of Black:
|
| 5/5 Hearts |
|
| 5/5 Books |
|
| 5/5 Stars |
When Shadows Fall:
|
| 5/5 Hearts |
|
| 5/5 Books |
|
| 5/5 Stars |
What Lies Behind:
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| 5/5 Hearts |
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| 5/5 Books |
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| 5/5 Stars |
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