Deep Dark Night by Steph Broadribb @crimethrillgirl @OrendaBooks @AnneCater #TeamLori #IAmLori

Source: Purchased copy
Publication: Published in e-book on 5 January 2020 and on p/back on 5 March 2020
PP: 320
ISBN-13: 978-1913193171

A city in darkness. A building in lockdown. A score that can only be settled in blood…

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…

I read this the day it came out in e-book. I had lost my reading mojo and wanted something that would not be a difficult read, but which would spark me up and help reclaim my love of reading. Deep Dark Night did just that for me, and so I am delighted to reprise my review here, in grateful thanks for giving me back my love of reading.

You can read Deep Dark Night as a stand-alone, but readers of the Lori Anderson series will recognise this book as a direct follow on from Deep Dirty Truth, which I loved almost as much as this 4^th book in the Lori series.

Broadribb is on fire in this latest sizzling story. Caught between a rock and a hard place by Agent Monroe of the FBI, she has very reluctantly agreed to do one last job for this man whom she does not trust at all.

Lori was mentally ripped apart by her last encounter with Monroe, in which way too many innocent people died just so that he could make his case, and more importantly, his name. So she’s more than wary when he calls in the debt he claims she owes him. Reluctantly she agrees to co-operate, but makes it clear that after this, all debts are paid and she and her partner JT can walk away free and clear.

Lori heads to Chicago to play in a high stakes poker game in a swanky penthouse apartment with JT as her close protection. The plan is to entrap Mafia boss Cabressa and gain sufficient evidence to enable Monroe to lock him up for life.

Everything is at stake for Lori who is outside her comfort zone when she realises that she is the only female player in the room and that JT, along with other personal security guards are to be sequestered in a different room in the building.

In a fresh and exciting take on the quintessential locked room mystery. Broadribb gives Lori her biggest challenge yet as she faces enemies on all fronts and JT is left unable to help and protect her.

Lori has to utilise every ounce of her trademark grit and determination to make her way through the traps that have been set for her, and every moment is spent wondering if she will ever see her little girl and J.T. again. With only her moral compass for guidance, Lori has to plough a path out of that dark and deadly room in order to stay alive long enough to pay her debt.

Verdict: This is Broadribb firing fast and furiously on all cylinders as we take a massive thrill ride into Chicago’s criminal elements and find that not everyone is playing a straight game. It’s dark (in more ways than one), violent and full of tension and suspense. An electrifying read that will have you on the edge of your seat praying for Lori to succeed.

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