Book Review: Tina Whittle's, NECESSARY ENDS

I received NECESSARY ENDS directly from the POISONED PEN PRESS for review purposes. It will be available for purchase April 3rd, 2018. The Envelope Please… Tai Randolph can’t resist a mystery. She may be an amateur sleuth, but she's a professional badass. One who happens to know a lot about guns. What she claims not to know is stuffed in an envelope under the register of her Kennesaw gun shop and has to do with Beauregard Forrest Boone, a ghost from her past. Trey Seaver, Tai's lover extraordinaire, is a former SWAT officer with the Atlanta PD. He’s precise but careful, calm but intimidating. Hot as Georgia asphalt in July, Trey has his own ghosts. Oh, and he can detect a lie as soon as it hits air. Or can he? Necessary Ends, the 6th book in Tina Whittle’s atmospheric Southern series, begins with a bang. With Tai still suffering with her Savannah nightmares of being bound, gagged and tagged for alligator bait in the back of a trunk, she isn’t at all excited to see PI Finn Hudson walk through the front door of her shop. Finn looks like a pixie and can be trusted about as much. She relays to both Tai and Trey the explosive news that she’s been hired by Talbot Creative Group to investigate “discreetly” who made an attempt on Atlantawood former producer Nick Talbot’s life. Here’s the bang: Trey is the number one suspect. The last thing Trey wants to do is to reopen the unsolved murder of model/actress Jessica Talbot. He has his reasons. One of which concerns his faulty memory caused by the deadly car accident that claimed the life of his mother just after the murder. The other is because Trey is certain that Nick Talbot, Jessica’s husband, killed her and staged the scene to look like a robbery. Nick was never charged, however, because the court tossed the evidence, which they felt had been compromised by a dirty cop. Now four years later, someone wants Nick dead, and the evidence points to Trey, the man most convinced that he not only killed his wife but got away with it. In order to keep off the suspect list, Trey must grant Nick an interview. It’s a chance for Trey to use his post-accident superpower skill of lie detecting to determine once and for all if Nick really killed Jessica, but by doing this, Trey risks exposing the secrets in his past. Chasing the truth is never easy especially when dealing with actors who are trained to lie for a living, and Tai and Trey have their hands full with the cast of Moonshine when they begin their own investigation into the Jessica Talbot murder. With a little undercover work, and a donkey—yes a donkey, the stubborn truth is finally revealed, but not without at least one tragic, high-speed consequence. Whittle crafts her characters like a fine albeit heavy-handed cocktail, sometimes stirred, often shaken, and Tai and Trey’s relationship has only become stronger with each pour. They are a perfect combination of “ghost peppers and Vidalia onion jam.” Sweet, spicy, and just a touch haunted. Necessary Ends is a character-driven Southern crime mystery with a tight plot and the perfect blend of ingredients: lies, lust, betrayal, humor, secrets, romance, revenge, and a gun or two. A recipe the South wouldn’t be—couldn’t be the South without. It’s what keeps us Whittle fans coming back for more. Now about that envelope… To learn more about Tina Whittle, please visit:  http://tinawhittle.com/ To pre-order a copy of Necessary Ends visit: https://www.amazon.com/Necessary-Ends-Randolph-Tina-Whittle/dp/1464209855