Ali Vali

Hit woman and thief Reed Gable works for the highest bidder, no matter where the job takes her. An orphan of circumstance, Reed knows the streets of Las Vegas better than anyone. Growing up rough has gotten her to the top of her profession, and she plans to stay there. Accountant Brinley Myers, a recent hire at the Moroccan Casino, discovers a money laundering operation orchestrated by the New York mob and suddenly her life and the people in it become collateral damage. Reed has Brinley in her sights and is ready to close the contract when she sees Brinley’s son in the car with her. Even hard-hearted Reed can’t kill a mother in front of her child. Before Reed can come up with a plan to finish the job, she’s double-crossed. It’ll take all her street smarts to keep herself, and her surprisingly beautiful mark, alive.

Double-Crossed

Izza

Jude Silberfeld

Reed Gable is a thief and a hit woman but when her next contract would entail the death of a child, she just can’t do it. The next few days spent with the little boy and his mother lead her to rethink her life, a life she has chosen for no other reason than it allows her to survive. There’s a lot more happening (a war between Mob families, for instance, which is not surprising since the story is set in the Cain Casey universe) but you’ll need to read the book to find out. I can’t summarize without spoiling.

A few pages in, I was convinced it was time to admit that Ali Vali’s books are not for me. I’ve read a few and, apart from Carly's Sound, I haven’t been able to relate to her universe. Her writing is good, she’s great at creating complex characters, it just doesn’t work for me.

Usually.

I realized mid-way that Reed was growing on me. There are still some things I didn’t entirely enjoy but I got rather invested in Reed’s story and how she would deal with Brinley and her child. I really liked Brinley’s relationship with her mother, Reed’s path to redemption (in a twisted but believable way), Brinley’s strength despite the tears… And who wouldn’t cry when faced with the situation she found herself in?

So I guess I’m not ready to give up on Vali’s books after all. I’m already looking forward to the next one in this new series.

I received a copy from the publisher and I am voluntarily leaving a review.

Megan Cooper

Welcome back, Ms. Vali.  I've missed you.

I haven't had a lot of luck with Vali's recent books and have struggled to finish them for a number of reasons.  It bothered me to no end as I really enjoy the Cain series and some of her earlier contemporary romances.    With Double-Crossed, I'm back in the Vali fold and found myself devouring the book over less than 24 hours (the dog was not happy to have her morning dog park visit delayed to an afternoon visit because I wanted to finish the book).  Is the book perfect - no.  Did I enjoy the heck out of reading it - hell yeah.

In Double-Crossed, Vali is back to what I think she does best - bad girls.  This is more of a suspense/crime novel than a romance; although, there is a romance that is kind of inevitable but doesn't have the sweeping intensity of the Cain/Emma pairing.   As the title suggests, this is a book full of conspiracy and double crossings.  So much so that at times, I found it a bit exhausting to keep up with all the shenanigans  - who was plotting what with who and planning to screw over which family for what reason.  There were a ton of mobsters and their families in this one and I think if the plot and characters were tightened a bit more, this would have hit a five star rating for me - as it was, things got a bit convoluted as I tried to keep too many characters who kept popping up and their motivations and end games straight.

Reed Gable, a thief and contract killer, is hired to dispose of a philandering husband in as humiliating a way as possible by his angry wife (and mob daughter).  From this point on, a number of seemingly unrelated events involving money laundering, corrupt casino managers and several mob families conspire to put Reed onto another contract to dispose of an auditor who may have dug a little too deep into the books.  Faced with the task of having to kill a young mother, Brinley Myers, and her one-year old son, what's a hardened contract killer to do?  

Vali seems to have a particular talent in making bad girls into heroes - Reed is a great example.  Unlike Cain, who inherits the top spot of a crime family (and manages to expand it through some pretty ruthless tactics), Reed has a pretty shitty past and is more of a self-made woman that gets the job done just as ruthlessly.   She's good at what she does and doesn't regret the choices that she's made - and despite what she does at the start of the novel with the cheating husband and his girlfriend, she does have a limit which is lucky for Brinley.  Brinley, is a pretty resourceful person in her own right - she's made some bad decisions but has moved on, making the best of things.  There's just the right amount of backstory for both Reed and Brinley - Vali doesn't go for over the top angst as she gives a bit of rationale for Reed's actions and decisions and even Brinley's character doesn't dwell obsessively over the past.   I liked them both.  The romance is almost secondary to everything else that is going on - it could easily be put down to Stockholm Syndrome as Reed has Brinley stashed away in a hideout while she tries to sort out the mess, but I think there's enough there to make the relationship believable (or maybe there's just so much other shit going on that you are desperate to latch onto anything that doesn't have corruption and greed at the heart of it).

Remi and Mano Jatibon make an appearance - which makes sense as one of their assets is the Gemini casino in Vegas.  They seemed to be the only rational mobsters in the city.  It was nice to see them out from under the shadow of Cain and working on their own business dealings and  I'm kind of hoping that we more of them and Reed and Brinley.  

At one point I had a sinking feeling (and a little bit of anticipation) that this was going to be an ongoing series - I was horrified that I'd come up the end with a massive cliffhanger, but also really happy to anticipate more of Reed and Brinley and the goings on in Las Vegas.  Happily, the book buttons up most of the loose ends and can stand on its own - no cliffhanger that will have me waiting a year or more to find out what comes next.  Even more happily, I can easily see Vali writing another book with either these characters or at least set in Vegas.  It will make a nice counterpoint to the New Orleans based series, give Remi and Mano a chance to stretch their influence and give readers a new setting and great new cast of characters.  

This is a good crime and suspense story with a little bit of romance to offset things.  There's a pretty gritty undertone and there's no shortage of violence, corruption and greed (and stupidity when it comes to greed).  By the end of the book, there's a pretty high body count and one of the protagonists is a contract killer with a fair bit of blood on her hands.   Despite that (or maybe because of that) it was a fun read and a very welcome addition to Ms. Vali's bad girl oeuvre.  

Recommended especially if you liked the Cain series

Double-Crossed

Reviews