Raw Wounds

May 15, 2017
The Portland, Maine, PI and her colleague and lover, Nicholas “Po” Villere, return in Hilton’s action-packed third Tess Grey thriller (after 2016’s Painted Skins). Near the start of the book, Tess and Po are out on a routine job, serving papers to a deadbeat ex-husband, when Po receives a call from his good friend Pinky Leclerc saying that Villere’s estranged mother is on her deathbed and is asking for him. Tess and Po head out to New Iberia, La., where the dying woman informs him he has a sister, Emilia, who was conceived with his father when she was already involved with her current husband. She asks Po to find Emilia, who, unbeknownst to her family, is on the run from the terrifying Menon brothers. Tess, Po, and Pinky are drawn into a family feud that quickly morphs into something altogether more complex and dangerous. The last quarter of the book races along at breakneck speed, with our heroine and Emilia proving that they can be just as resourceful and deadly as any of the gang of hoodlums they’re up against.

May 1, 2017
His third adventure recalls private eye Nicolas "Po" Villere and his partner, ex-cop Tess Grey, back to his roots in Baton Rouge for the world's worst, and most eventful, homecoming.Po wastes no tears over the impending death of his mother, who was repeatedly unfaithful to Jacques Villere, the father whose violent death Po spent 12 years in jail for violently avenging. But now that Clara Villere, seeing her end approaching, has asked him to return, he can't say no even though her deathbed is likely to be closely attended by her second husband, Darius Chatard, and his surviving sons, Francis and Leon, who've sworn vengeance against Po for killing their brothers, Roman and Lucas. Clara wastes no time in telling Po why she wanted him to come: to let him know that he has a sister, Emilia Chatard, who, despite her last name, is Jacques Villere's daughter. Though the news does nothing to close the rifts between Po and the Chatards, that's almost beside the point, because much bigger trouble is around the corner. Emilia, still as ignorant that she has another sibling as Po was until very recently, and her boyfriend have gone deep into the backwoods to score some designer weed only to find the growers, Hal and Jamie Thibodaux, gruesomely slain. Cleary Menon, their monstrous killer, and his more normal-sized brother, Zeke, have recognized Emilia and threatened her and her loved ones so effectively that she's gone into hiding, guided only by the mantra: "Stay hidden. Stay alive." Wonder how that family reunion will work out now? As much brutally choreographed action as Painted Skins (2016), much of it taking the form of rematches among gladiators who've already gone one round with each other. The family complications, though, make this sequel seem just a bit more deeply felt.

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January 25, 2016
At the start of this brutal series launch from Hilton (The Devil’s Anvil and nine other Joe Hunter thrillers), Portland, Maine, PI Tess Grey travels to Louisiana, accompanied by Nicolas “Po” Villere. A convicted murderer who served time in the notorious Angola prison, Po is from the area where Crawford Wynne, a key witness against imprisoned crime syndicate leader Alberto Suarez, is in hiding. Witnesses against Suarez are either killed or disappear, and attorney Emma Clancy wants the duo to find Wynne before Suarez does. The dynamic between Po and Tess grows from distrust to wary respect to partnership as they learn about each other while dealing with ex-con Pinky Leclerc, gang leader Trey Robinson, and the Cottonmouths motorcycle gang. Locating Wynne only serves to send them back to Maine, where a sadistic killer has started to bring the fight home to them. Po and Tess make an appealing odd couple.

May 1, 2017
In the new Tess Grey and Nicolas Po Villere mystery, ex-con Villere and his private-eye partner (in more ways than one), Grey, head from Maine to Louisiana, where Po's dying mother reveals he has a long-lost sister, who has apparently gone missing. Tess and Po race against time to save the woman from death at the hands of a vicious killer. The two leads make an appealing team, their banter counterpointing the darker nature of the story, which is as much about Po's family's twisted past as it is about the pursuit of a killer. The dialogue and characterizations don't always ring true, but the narrative is well crafted and full of suspense.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)