A city in lockdown
A building in lockdown
A score that can only be settled in blood….
– Deep Dark Night
[ About the Book ]
Working off the books for FBI Special Agent Alex Monroe, Florida bounty-hunter Lori Anderson and her partner, JT, head to Chicago. Their mission: to entrap the head of the Cabressa crime family. The bait: a priceless chess set that Cabressa is determined to add to his collection.
An exclusive high-stakes poker game is arranged in the penthouse suite of one of the city’s tallest buildings, with Lori holding the cards in an agreed arrangement to hand over the pieces, one by one. But, as night falls and the game plays out, stakes rise and tempers flare.
When a power failure plunges the city into darkness, the building goes into lockdown. But this isn’t an ordinary blackout, and the men around the poker table aren’t all who they say they are. Hostages are taken, old scores resurface and the players start to die.
And that’s just the beginning…
[ My Review ]
Deep Dark Night is the fourth book in this fantastic award-winning series by Steph Broadribb. Published on March 5th with Orenda Books, it sees the return of the, now infamous, kick-ass, hard-talking bounty hunter, Lori Anderson. Described as ‘a whip-smart, nail-biting action thriller set in Chicago‘ Deep Dark Night takes the reader on another fast-paced, page-turning , heart-pumping read.
Lori and her partner JT are heading to Chicago, leaving their family and life behind them in Florida, to work with their longtime nemesis FBI Special Agent Alex Monroe. Lori and JT have one more job to do for Monroe, with the understanding that this is the final one, allowing all involved to go their separate ways. Monroe has brought much anguish and damage into the lives of Lori and JT and they want him gone for good. One more job is all they have to do to walk away, but it is one that carries huge risks to their lives. Their target is the head of the feared Cabressa crime family, a much reviled man with a litany of crimes behind him. He is an untouchable individual, a man whose power stretches far and wide. Monroe wants to bring Cabressa down and, with the assistance of Lori and JT, he has a plan. A priceless chess set is the bait, one that Cabressa will do anything to get hold of. It’s a very dangerous mission but one Lori and JT see that they have very little choice but to accept.
With the promised protection of Monroe, Lori inveigles herself into a very high-stakes poker game with a secluded gathering at a private location. Lori doesn’t play poker but she is a fast learner and with JT as her teacher she prepares as much as she can before hand. Monroe has spectacularly left them down in the past. Can they trust him again?
With JT by her side as her security, Lori enters the penthouse suite, apprehensive but ready. She wants to go home to Florida as soon as possible, eager to see her young daughter Dakota. This is her chance at freedom. She knows the risks but she was not expecting what happened next……
The game begins with much tension in the air but Lori is holding her own. When the city is suddenly, and unexpectedly, plunged into darkness as a power-cut shuts everything down, the atmosphere at the table changes. Something is very wrong, someone has a very different agenda.
As the first body hits the ground Lori immediately knows that this is a fight for survival. What was a poker game now becomes a hostage situation, but to Lori and JT it makes no sense. Who in this room could organise such a catastrophic event and why? Chicago is in chaos as the city loses it’s grip on it’s citizens. Gangs roam the streets with bad intentions rife. Lori and JT need to get to those streets fast..but where is Munroe, where is the protection he had promised?
As Lori and JT gather their strength personalities emerge in the suite and past histories are exposed. As the truth slowly starts to reveal itself, the body count increases and the stakes rise, but this time they are all playing a very different game, they are playing for their lives. Lori has been hardened by years of fighting for survival and protecting her family. She is tough. She is fearless. She is resolute. In this dark suite with it’s scent of sweat and fear, Lori must use every strength she can find to put a stop to this madness, this terror that has not just filled this room but has also brought Chicago to it’s knees…..
Reading this series always brings about a change in my accent, as in my head I talk like Lori, I visualise Lori, I live and breathe as Lori. For a brief time I am Lori (I did say brief!!) I love a book where I can completely escape reality and become totally absorbed with the plot, the characters, the writing. Steph Broadribb provides all this and more in this exciting addition to the series.
Deep Dark Night is a frantic, heart-pumping, adrenaline rush. It is a completely engrossing page-turner, an invigorating ride, a thrill.
It’s a mighty book with some darn mean folk and a series I heartily recommend to all.
[ Bio ]
Steph Broadribb was born in Birmingham and grew up in Buckinghamshire. Most of her working life has been spent between the UK and USA. As her alter ego – Crime Thriller Girl – she indulges her love of all things crime fiction by blogging at crimethrillergirl, where she interviews authors and reviews the latest releases. She is also a member of the crime-themed girl band The Splice Girls. Steph is an alumni of the MA in Creative Writing (Crime Fiction) at City University London, and she trained as a bounty hunter in California, which inspired her Lori Anderson thrillers. She lives in Buckinghamshire surrounded by horses, cows and chickens. Her debut thriller, Deep Down Dead, was shortlisted for the Dead Good Reader Awards in two categories, was a finalist in the ITW Awards, and hit number one on the UK and AU kindle charts. The sequels, Deep Blue Trouble and Deep Dirty Truth soon followed suit. Deep Dark Night is OUT NOW.
My Little Eye, her first novel under her pseudonym Stephanie Marland, was published by Trapeze Books in April 2018.
Twitter ~ @CrimeThrillGirl
