Name: Slingshot
ISBN: 9781602826663

Carsen Taite

Luca is a bounty hunter, hired by lawyer Veronica Moreno to find her missing client. Between the threats from strangers and her attraction to her employer, this case is getting more complicated than she had believed it could.

Slingshot

Who says crime doesn't pay? Luca Bennett makes her living looking for people, but her sights aren't set on lost children separated from their parents at a busy mall or elderly Alzheimer's patients who wandered from the nursing home. She's a bounty hunter paid to apprehend fugitives on the lam. Luca caught her latest job from new-in-town, criminal defense attorney, Veronica Ronnie Moreno. Ronnie's client, seedy local businessman Jed Quitman, failed to show up for court, and Ronnie wants him found right away. With Jed's mug smiling from dozens of billboards and low-budget, late-night television commercials, Luca figures finding him will be a breeze. It doesn't take long for Luca to realize there's nothing simple about this job, from a stranger threatening her to stay away, to the fiery hot woman who has Luca looking for more than the usual one-night stand. The hunt for Jed quickly turns complicated, and the pursuit is fraught with danger, as is her attraction to the elusive Ronnie Moreno. In a case loaded with twists and turns, can Luca find everything she's looking for?

Renee

This was the first story I read by the author. It is an entertaining crime/mystery and Luca is a flawed character but good at her job. I found myself suspicious of certain supporting characters at different times during the story.

Carol Bailey

If I could give this 3 1/2 stars I would.

From the acknowledgements in the book this is Carsen Taite’s first mystery and the first time she has tackled a series. Luca Bennett is an ex-cop who quite the force under less than auspicious reasons. Now she is a bounty hunter because the lack of rules and people depending on her suits her personality. At least according to Luca.

The mystery was interesting, less so in the fact that you almost always know who is behind the crimes, although there are a few characters where you are left guessing as to their involvement and to what degree. What I think I found more interesting than the crime/mystery was trying to figure out how Luca was going to get out of the mess she was in and who was going to actually help her or betray her.

Overall I think this was a good introduction to the character of Luca and I’m looking forward to seeing another book and how this character develops.

Megan Cooper

I liked this one quite a bit and have been hovering at 3.5 and 4 as a rating for it. Slingshot is a bit darker and grittier than Taite's other books and focuses on a rather hard boiled PI, Luka Bennett. This is a first person narrative, which always works well for PI/Bounty Hunter type stories - but it leaves the reader a bit in the dark as to what the hell is going on in other people's heads/lives. Regardless, Luka is an intersting character - more than a little rough around the edges but still likable - and the books moves along at a pretty fast pace. The mystery is resolved at the end, but there's a few things left open ended which makes me hope it means that Luka gets another book.