One Major Mistake
Author: Starr Gardineier Reina
Genre: Suspense
Date Published: 7/10/12
Synopsis:
Despite
having brought down two major crime families, Pavel’s life is still
filled with problems. The two bright things in his world: Teresa
Mancini, his fiancée, who, on a good day, has the ability to bring him
to his knees and his daughter Rita Grace, a result of a whirlwind affair
before he fell in love with Teresa.
Once again, murder is the
prime evil propelling Pavel into his latest case. After the murder of
his partner and friend Nick Haxton’s ex-wife Brenda, Pavel leads a team
to dethrone Guillermo Diaz, the leader of a drug gang believed to be
responsible for Brenda’s death. Detective Danni Stone joins the local
agency. Stone knows Diaz on the most intimate of levels, and wants to be
present at his demise.
During the investigations, not only does
the team grieve with Nick over Brenda’s death, they also deal with the
loss of their long-time Assistant Director in Charge Steven Lazlo, who
was gunned down in their own backyard. Pavel has a particularly hard
time dealing with Lazlo’s death and is determined to hold everyone
involved responsible.
As if Pavel can take anymore, Teresa
receives a substantially large check from an anonymous benefactor, and
insists that Pavel deal with it while she decides how to spend it. But
not before she uses her iron-willed determination to find out who the
benefactor is even if it means breaking into her attorney’s office
looking for answers. Being thrown in jail would stop any ordinary woman,
but apparently not Teresa.
Join Pavel as he wades through
harrowing situations, suspects aplenty and suspense in this third
thrilling installment of the Ivanovich Series.
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Shouting in the outer room cut him off. Pavel flung the door open and
saw agents ducking beneath their desks, guns drawn. Everyone was
yelling.
“Put your weapon down!”
“Let him go!”
It was total pandemonium.
“Shit,” Pavel said quietly. “Guys,” he nodded toward the outer room. “This doesn’t look good.”
Pavel
immediately grabbed his weapon, squatted down and slowly made his way
into the room toward the nearest desk. He peered over it and saw Lazlo
standing in the middle of the room, a man with his arm around his
throat, gun aimed at his head. The man was yelling for everyone to throw
their weapons down.
“I’ll kill him!”
The man backed
toward the door, dragging Lazlo with him. Forensco dashed toward the
main room and ducked down behind his desk. The man began shooting
wildly. Bullets whistled over the desk in the back where Pavel was
crouching.
“Put the weapon down and let’s discuss this,” Pavel yelled to the man.
“Throw your guns down or he dies!”
“I won’t let them hurt you,” Lazlo tried to reassure the man.
“Shut up!” he smacked Lazlo on the side of the head with the butt of the gun.
Pavel
noticed that Nick made his way to the edge of the room and the rest of
the team dispersed themselves within the room, taking cover behind file
cabinets, counters and desks. Pavel looked at Nick and moved his head in
the direction of where the man was holding Lazlo. Nick understood his
meaning.
“Okay,” Pavel yelled, his heart thundering in his chest.
“Everyone do as he says. Slide your weapons to the center of the room.”
He could hear metal clanging against the floor. He glided his
gun across the floor with the others and stood up, hands raised, knowing
that if it came to that, he still had his backup strapped to his ankle.
Sweating now, he stood there hoping the gunman didn’t start shooting at
him. He wouldn’t have time to get to his piece. He tried to talk the
man down.
“Okay, we’re all unarmed. Let him go,” Pavel told him.
He made eye contact with Lazlo and tried to mentally tell him he would be fine.
Suddenly Agent Forensco stood up in front of Pavel and aimed at the man.
“Let him go!” Forensco yelled.
“Forensco, put it down,” Pavel ordered.
The
man appeared startled and nervous. He began waving his gun at Forensco
then at Pavel and back at Lazlo. It seemed to Pavel that the gunman was
as out of control as the situation was. Forensco ignored Pavel and shot
toward the man, barely missing Lazlo. Pavel figured the man reacted out
of fear when he shot back at Forensco. He missed. Pavel ducked down, but
kept his eyes trained on what was unfolding in front of him. The gunman
aimed back at Lazlo’s head and pulled the trigger. Pavel saw his boss
crumple to the floor.
“No,” Pavel screamed as an initial reaction.
Almost
instantaneously, Nick came around the corner and fired a clean shot to
the head of the unknown man, who fell next to Lazlo.
Pavel ran
toward Lazlo, yelling for someone to call nine-one-one. Even in his
despair, in the back of his mind, he knew it was too late, but he tried
all the medical techniques he knew in order to save Lazlo. Nothing
worked. A few attempted to pull him away from Lazlo, but Pavel didn’t
see who they were. All he could see was that both Lazlo and the crazed
man were dead.
Review:
One Major Mistake is
a wonderful crime/suspense book that is gritty and quite realistic. The main character is Pavel, who has to solve the grisly murder of his best friend & partner's ex-wife. The case leads him to yet another kingpin in the crime community - a drug lord named Guillermo Diaz. The only thing that seems to keep Pavel sane in his line of work and in his crazy life is his wife, Teresa, and his daughter, Rita Grace.
I found this book to be a thrilling and fast paced crime novel that takes the reader through the gritty city streets filled with crime. The characters were realistic and believable, so it was easy to connect with them - especially Pavel. The narrative is well written and has excellent descriptions and story building. The author did a great job with this novel, which is the final installment in the Ivanovich series. Fans of fast-paced crime novels will not be disappointed with this book.
I found this book to be a thrilling and fast paced crime novel that takes the reader through the gritty city streets filled with crime. The characters were realistic and believable, so it was easy to connect with them - especially Pavel. The narrative is well written and has excellent descriptions and story building. The author did a great job with this novel, which is the final installment in the Ivanovich series. Fans of fast-paced crime novels will not be disappointed with this book.
About the Author:
A paralegal by day, she’s an author by night. Apart from
being an award winning author for her short story "Cut", Reina has
appeared in a blaze and made her mark on the literary world with her
Ivanovich Series. The first is “In the Name of Revenge”, the second,
“Deadly Decisions” and the third, "One Major Mistake" is to be released
July 10, 2012. Having studied and obtained her Bachelor’s Degree in
Literature/Creative Writing, she has found her unique style and is known
for her works' distinctive voice, making every character stand out.
Reina is the artistic creator of the Ivanovich series featuring Pavel
Ivanovich. Flanking Ivanovich's side in "Deadly Decisions" is Teresa
Mancini, who vies with Ivanovich for readers' attention. According to
J.M. LeDuc, who was "raised in an Italian family", Teresa "is
perfect...like all your characters". Reina is also the author of young
adult novella "Cruel Whispers" and its sequel novel "Cruel Past". Reina
is an executive editor for Suspense Magazine. She has been interviewed
in the newspaper and on the radio with relation to her fiction work. She
has been a co-host on Suspense Radio. She has won three Best Speaker
awards as well as Best Evaluator at the Voice Ambassadors chapter of
Toastmasters. Reina is a member of Sisters in Crime, Los Angeles Chapter
and nationally. She has always been active in events. As co-chair and
main coordinator for the West Coast Author Premiere, she arranged the
weekend-long event to help authors from all over network, learn and
share their work with the public. Reina has also been instrumental in
compiling authors and planning a local author event at Barnes and Noble
in Ventura, California along with the store’s event manager.
Connect with Starr:
*Disclosure of Material Connection: I am a member of Reading
Addiction Blog Tours and a copy of this book was provided to me by the
author. Although payment may have been received by Reading Addiction
Blog Tours, no payment was received by me in exchange for this review.
There was no obligation to write a positive review. All opinions
expressed are entirely my own and may not necessarily agree with those
of the author, publisher, publicist, or readers of this review. This
disclosure is in accordance with the Federal Trade Commision’s 16 CFR,
Part 255, Guides Concerning Use of Endorcements and Testimonials in
Advertising*
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