Double Play / Perfect Victim (Nadia Stafford #3.5, 3.6 )
by Kelley Armstrong
Rating: 4 stars
Genre: Suspense/ Romantic Suspense
Blurb:
Kindle compilation of two novellas in the Nadia Stafford crime series.Double Play
Life is good for Nadia and Jack. Their wilderness lodge business is booming, and they’re building a new home together, complete with a couple of dogs. It’s as close to normal as life gets…especially for a pair of contract killers.
But for Jack, semi-retirement is a dangerous proposition. There are plenty of people who don’t want to lose his services. He’s halfway around the world when one of those disgruntled clients comes for Nadia. And he has no way to warn her.Perfect Victim
Fifteen years ago, hit man Tyrone Cypher disappeared into the wilderness. Now he’s back with a job for his old “friend” Jack. While Jack doesn’t consider Cypher much of a friend, the job is ideal for Nadia.
There’s a killer in Honolulu, targeting those involved in the family court system. When no one else would take one victim’s cases, lawyer Angela Kamaka did, putting herself squarely in the killer’s cross-sights.
For Nadia, Angela is the perfect victim—an innocent person in danger for doing the right thing. So Nadia and Jack get an all-expenses paid trip to Hawaii courtesy of Tyrone Cypher, who has his own reasons for wanting to keep Angela safe.
My Review:
Double Play
I enjoyed this short novella. It was great returning to this series for a little while and getting to spend some time with Jack and Nadia. And while you can easily skip this novella as the trilogy wraps things up nicely, I do think it’s a great extra for the fans of this series and it does adds something and furthers a few things.
The story centers about a bit of a mystery, Jack is in Ireland for a mission and Nadia is still at home at the lodge. Then on both sides they land in an investigation. I liked how it was told from both their point of views and it was absolutely necessary for the story too. The title seemed to fit the story too. The mystery/ suspense part was well done and there was a nice twist at the end when everything fell on it’s place.
I really liked the scene were we see Nadia and Jack together and I liked how we got a bit more insight in their relationship and how things advanced a bit more here. I liked seeing the life they build together and their dogs and the lodge.
To summarize: This is great little extra for fans of this series. The novella tells a mystery and wrap everything up by the end and gives us some extra tidbits about Nadia and Jack’s relationship. The dual pov worked great for this story and I liked the twist at the end wee everything fell on it’s place. If you were hoping for one more adventure starring Jack and Nadia, I recommend you pick this up.
Perfect Victim
I just finished reading Double Play and decided to dive right into this one as well. In Perfect Victim someone from Jack’s past resurfaces and they want Jack and Nadia’s help. This story contains a mystery and some suspense and it all gets neatly wrapped by the end.
I thought the mystery was well done, there was a lot of guessing of who was the murderer. And there were some nice twists at the end that made a lot of sense, but I hadn’t predicted them, which I like. It also was interesting that the book took place on Hawaii, although the focus isn’t really on the setting, you did notice it took place there.
The dual point of view worked very well here with Jack and Nadia sometimes splitting up to cover different angles. And other times it’s just fun to see both their point of views when it comes to the other. Just like Double Play this one again furthers their relationship a bit more and I am happy where it leaves them at the end of this novella.
To summarize: this is a great novella for fans of the series who want a bit more. Perfect Victim contains a mystery for Nadia and Jack to solve and everything gets neatly wrapped by the end. The dual point of view works really well and it’s fun to get both jack and Nadia’s point of view. It also further their relationship a bit. I was happy to get these two novella’s and got to read a bit more about the characters this way.
Links:
– Goodreads
– Amazon
– Kobo
You can also read my review on Goodreads and Amazon.
Oh, yes, I am definitely a big fan for a little extra for the fans. Looks like these had some good development character and mystery-wise.
Sophia Rose recently posted…Review: Crossing Quinn by Gail Koger
Same here! Especially give how the series ended I thought it was nice we got these extra two stories about these characters :). And I was happy how these had some nice character development and a good mystery as well.
I’m always up for revisiting a world I’ve liked – so long as the price is right. I do mind paying the same amount for a novella as a novel. This one sounds like great fun though. I hope you had a lovely day yesterday, Lola:)
I thought these novella’s were priced decently considering the length as together they are about 240 pages in total I think. Still a bit on the higher side, but as this is one of my favorite authors I didn’t mind paying that. And I really liked how these novella’s added to the series.
It sounds as if they are good value, then. And you’re right – she is an excellent writer.
I did think they added good value and she is a great writer indeed 🙂
I so love this series too. I haven’t tried these two novellas. I hear that Double Play is coming to audio, which will help it move up my TBR list. Glad to see that you enjoyed it.
Melanie Simmons @mlsimmons recently posted…2017 Midwinter’s Eve Giveaway Hop
That’s neat it will probably be coming to audio. I hope you get to chance to read or listen to these. It was fun to see Nadia and Jack’s relationship develop a bit more.