Deb’s Dozen: A Hung Man, A Restaurant Fire, Shots Fired. Who Wants Daniel Dead?

Without Warning is the second in the Elite Guardians mystery-suspense series by Lynette Eason. I’m really starting to hate this woman—I pick up one of her books and I can’t put the book down until I’m finished. Without Warning is definitely one of those page-turners that will keep you up all night if you start reading late in the day.

Daniel Matthews, a restauranteur, is working late one night when he hears a strange “chink-chink” sound. Following the sound to the cellar under his restaurant, he sees an open door and the taillights of a car driving off. The car’s too far away to read the license plate, so Daniel turns around and, to his horror, sees a body hanging from a chain fastened over one of the beams—“chink-chink” as the body sways and turns. Worse, Daniel recognizes the body as the chef he recently fired.

Doing his duty, he calls the police and soon cars with lights flashing are at the scene. Katie Singleton, a partner in Elite Guardians, notices the lights and realizes they’re in front of the restaurant owned by the uncle of one of her self-defense students, Riley. Riley has been living with Daniel since her parents were both killed by a drunk driver.

Katie pulls up to the site and is welcomed in by a detective she’s worked with in the past, Quinn Holcombe. He updates her on what they’ve found so far. As they’re talking, an officer rushes up to tell Quinn one of Daniel’s other restaurants is on fire. Katie volunteers to drive Daniel there. And they’re off—off to solve the mystery of why. Why Daniel’s restaurants? Who is out to ruin him? And when shots are fired, the question becomes who wants to kill him?

I loved Katie and Daniel and Riley and Quinn. Lynette Eason has the talent of making characters come to life on the pages of her novels with very few descriptive words. I was drawn in and caring for Katie and Daniel by the end of the first chapter. And Riley captivated me as Eason painted the picture of an above average high school senior, who is quite mature and astute, yet still a teenager at heart. The other partners in Elite Guardians play a role in the book too, but only Olivia and Haley seem to come to life in this book. Olivia was the heroine in the first book in the series, Always Watching.

You’ll want to buy both books in the series, but be prepared to be glued to the pages as you read them! Five stars again, Lynette!

Lynette Eason is an award-winning author with multiple mystery-suspense books under her belt. She’s written three other series: Deadly Reunions, Hidden Identity, and Women of Justice. Lynette lives in South Carolina. Her website is www.LynetteEason.com

Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group, gave me a copy of Without Warning in exchange for my unbiased review.